I have room for peas and beans and tomatoes!!
February 27th, 2010
I have room for peas and beans and tomatoes!!
February 21st, 2010
I wanted to get some roses, too (they looked really good), but I couldn't decide which one I wanted. Oh well :)
Oh, from the Garden Show, I got a peony (Sarah Bernhardt) that I've forgotten to plant :( Soon, soon! And some San Marzano tomato seeds.
Started the pepper seeds in coffee filters; hopefully will get those transplanted into dirt when I'm not laid out on my back :(
May 3rd, 2009
Did end up at Swanson's, with A. She ended up buying five roses; all very pretty: Dreams Come True, Diana, Peace, Black Magic, and Strike it Rich. We (FH) planted them in the mulched area beside her driveway, where they look like they've been all along.
So, our plant haul:
Peppers: Beaver Dam (heirloom, sweet/mildly hot), Healthy (OP, sweet) and King of the North Green Bell
Tomatoes: Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple, Principe Borghese, Glacier
Mint: Kentucky colonel mint, Moroccan spearmint
Yellow crookneck squash
Cippolini onions
Leeks
On the plus side, we didn't wait in the checkout line very long. On the other hand, I also didn't get most of the plants I had wanted to get. There were barely any plants left. I'm sad I didn't get either the shiso or sorrel, or any of the heirloom cherry tomatoes.
Moral of the story: even if the line is super long, go on Saturday for selection.
We might make it up to Sky Nursery later today so I will update with the plant haul later.
April 22nd, 2009
Didn't put the boards down because they were probably treated; someone there reminded me of that rule. Did plant three rows of spinach and one of lettuce. Peas: Two of Sugar Lace, two of Little Marvel. Also planted a row of onions for the food bank.
April 7th, 2009
It's finally warm enough to go outside to get some gardening done! Also, we had the first P-Patch meeting for the growing season on Saturday. The meeting was short, so we turned the scrubby fava beans into the ground and met a few fellow gardeners.
Then, Fuchsia Day at Fred Meyer. Varieties I got:
Pink marshmallow
Blue satin
Harry Gray?
Swingtime
Lena
Also picked up 6 geraniums for A; we'll see how they do.
Cut blackberries and the overgrown vinca back.
Also pruned the roses at FH's mom's.
I need to get to planting!
October 26th, 2008
Today, we put the P-Patch "to bed" for the winter. This year we're trying out cover-cropping, instead of just putting a tarp over the whole thing and calling it a day (winter?). Sky Nursery provided us with some faba beans that are supposed to both fix nitrogen, loosen soil (not really necessary), and add more nutrients to the soil. We planted the pea-sized seeds about 1/4" deep, and only 6" apart. We'll see if they work. I really hope so, because I think the soil in our 'patch is not terribly rich anymore. I'm used to growing in very high nutrient soil (ahem, compost), and it's just not cutting it. It would definitely save a trip with compost!
I lost the battle to weeds in/around our raised beds at home this year (though we do have a LOT of green tomatoes ripening in the basement), so it was not a terribly exciting harvest. I did eventually get ripe tomatoes from every heirloom variety I tried, except for New Yorker, which bloomed, but never did fruit. I didn't get around to tasting the Tiger-Like or the Earliana, but we now have some table-ripened Japanese Black Trifele, which grew enormously large and prolific. Hopefully we'll slice into those tomorrow! Cherokee Purple is a must-have for next year. I liked Blondekopfchen for a yellow cherry that wasn't too sweet, but the sweet red cherries are still the most flavorful. Jaune Flamme was okay, sweet, but the relative toughness of the skin is a little disconcerting.
My 8-ball zucchini grew to small bowling ball-size, and turned orange. Summer squash become winter squash? The "normal" zucchini was very odd, never did do quite right, producing terribly hard-skinned squash. I got a handful of beets, only one sizeable. I let my last planting of radishes go to seed (by accident), but now I have a huuuge pile of radish seeds for next year, if they're viable. Popping the pods was fun. Broccoli utterly failed, as they made some sparse buds, and then flowered before a head formed. I didn't have great bean germination this year, but we did get a meal of the Masai green beans (yummy!), very sweet and slender, only semi-squeaky.
The 4 o'clocks are still blooming, so I'll be digging those rhizomes out when it gets colder. Fortunately, the herb bed is very very low maintenance, though the self-seeding catnip is on the verge of taking over if I don't tear the mini-plants out soon.
Our current plan is to keep the P-Patch next year, as we are going to completely tear apart the side yard and raised beds at home. They're only two years old, but the weeds and blackberries are getting out of control. And we have to move two of the beds to make room for a stone-paved patio and green house, etc. So it'll just be easier to depend on the P-Patch plot for our instant gratification planting, while we do a proper job of it at home.
June 4th, 2008
My peas have exploded in growth in the last few weeks, and have even started flowering. As usual, I have utterly neglected to give them a trellis (most of my varieties do not need it, as they're only 2 feet tall). I even forgot to harvest the pea-shoots from the snow peas, so I guess I am having snow peas to eat too. They're growing so vigorously that they are leaning over onto the Japanese Black Trifele tomato, so I'll have to put a stick between them.
We've had our first couple of harvests (ever) of spinach and kale. They are also in the "growing insanely" category. Here's a picture of me with one of the bigger spinach leaves. Yes, it is the size of my head. Surprisingly, it cooked down tender and tasty.

Here's the giant basket of kale I cut last night, which was also very tasty, stir-fried with garlic and chicken broth. Now that I know I can grow tasty leafy greens, I will have to try better at putting in lettuce next year.


Oh, and a picture of a caterpillar that hitched a ride into the house. It went back outside to the garden. I couldn't identify it, but it wasn't spiny, because FH petted it (yet runs from worms).

In the not growing so well categories are the warm-weather plants. This is unsurprising; it's been a very, very cold spring. Of my tomatoes that I started from seed, half of them are doing okay, starting to get growing, and the others have pretty much shivered since I put them in the ground. In contrast, the "volunteers" from last year's rotting abundance of cherry tomatoes, are doing much better. This is definitely a vote in favor of Winter Sowing, even for tomatoes. I was going to buy some backup plants, but one of my labmates came through with three extra plants (Early Girl, Early Cascade and *something I forgot*) that are a very good size, so I guess we'll have tomatoes after all. If summer ever comes. I have been horribly distracted the last month, so haven't planted beans yet. The cucurbits have been doing okay, and the slugs have finally learned to stay away from my basil! (Might have something to do with the very sharp eggshell fencing.)
The roses have been blooming for weeks now, and the irises are nearing the end of their run. My sweet peas are about 6" high, and I think I'm going to have to put up a trellis for them this weekend, rain or not.


So that's the 'uh, I just let it grow' garden report. In the meantime, I have to see to putting a bathroom back together...
May 20th, 2008
(5/16) Planted out basil. Catnip now up to waist, which is about 3.5' tall. Huge.
(5/17) Found basil got eaten to nubs by slugs. ARGH! P-Patch orientation and work party. Planted the artichoke, leftover parsley, half squash, and three broccoli into the P-Patch. Also rows of marigolds to mark the edge of the beds. (Got a flat of 48 plants from Fred Meyer, $10.) It was really hot, so didn't get to seed the beans. Learned much about annoying weeds ("poppers", chickweed, false chickweed, wild lettuce, etc.). Crumbled egg shells in a ring around basil. Those slimy bastards! Cut the season's first yellow rose. Pulled out the rest of the radishes.
(5/18) Egg barrier seems to be working. Basil may survive. Weeded the rose bed for about 3 hours. Halfway through. Planted out one of each variety of tomato. The ones from seed are incredibly small; I should have been more diligent about how I was treating them. But, now they're in the bed, and I think they're doing better. I planted 6 to a 4x6 bed. The two starts we got from Seattle Tilth are sharing the pea bed for now. The volunteers from last year's SuperSweet 100s are getting pretty big. Planted leftover kale, lettuce, etc. Spinach is huge.
(5/19) Second harvest! FH went out of his own accord and harvested spinach and kale leaves for dinner. I think he cut off the biggest leaves. The interesting part is that I came home, stared at the leafy greens bed and didn't notice he'd taken leaves! The spinach is remarkably tender, despite leaves being bigger than the palm of my hand, and the kale is tender and lovely textured. He cooked them in chicken broth and mushed garlic. So good!
Have some pictures, will share later.
May 3rd, 2008
We went to the Seattle Tilth Plant sale this morning (it's still going on tomorrow) and picked up a few things:
- One pot of Italian flat-leaved parsley (that ended up having nothing short of a dozen parsley starts)
- two genovese basil starts (I forgot to start those this year)
- "Jaune Flamme" tomato (the seeds I got didn't germinate, try again next year)
- "Japanese Black Trifele" tomato
- Artichoke, "Green Globe",
bennybot's experiment
- mint julep
Today was one of those lovely, wet, spring days where things are getting watered, and actually growing despite the chilly weather. It really should have happened last month. But the garden's growing despite the low temps. I must be doing something right with pruning the roses, as they're amazingly lush, and so far, the leaves seem disease-free. The bushes that were straggly last year have put in strong, new canes. I just need to get to weeding the beds!
Speaking of growing weeds, as I was weeding the beds today, I found the first of the many, many tomato seedlings that are going to be popping up from all the unpicked, rotten tomatoes from last year. My do-it-yourself winter sowing, wherein I don't not provide the dirt! Talk about lazy. It's too bad that they came from a hybrid... but even so, that means that 50% ought to be the right hybrid, right Mendel? I just have no way of figuring out which plants are that 50%.
The strawberries (Quinault), that I was wanting to pull out, have suddenly turned on lush, green growth with HUGE white flowers. They're growing in less than an inch of good dirt. Guess I'll let them go another season. I still don't know where to put my Tristar strawberries... maybe FH's cousins.
I pulled a catnip leaf today the size of --no, bigger than! -- my palm.
The Dutch irises are blooming. The bearded irises have a few flowering bud-branches up. Must remember to divide these this year!!
More weeding tomorrow! It better be sunny.
April 22nd, 2008
Let's see, what's happened... I started tomatoes, started the cucumber seeds I got from Richard, transplanted the lettuce, kale, rocket, broccoli into cellpacks, and weeded dandelions from the yard. I think at this point, I have filled an entire yard waste bin full of dandelions. I should have taken a picture, but was far too tired. I really hope the yard waste gets solarized, but I think it must, as it's also our food waste.
Anyway, on to the fun part, the pictures!
The herbs, at least, think it's spring. Here's the thyme and oregano. I think my oregano could be modelling on a seed packet cover, somewhere. Maybe even a centerfold, but not that I had anything to do with it. The thyme is looking suddenly a little ragged, I think it's about to flower. But both pairs of herbs have doubled since my last pictures. I stuck my foot in one of the pictures to show some scale. I have a very reasonable size 7 foot, too.
Here's the catnip, also huge. Notice how the leaves get bigger and bigger as you get up to the top of the plant.
And the sage, about to flower.
My peas, which I have made to look prettier by dramatic camera angle!
Sad little stunted spinach
Inside, the zucchini are really taking off, and the cucumbers are puttering about. All the other little guys are growing along as well.
And finally! I am on the tomato bandwagon. These are seeds from WinterSown.org. The bottom left in the plastic tub are peppers.
Oh yeah, p.s. Happy Earth Day. I'm a little grumpy about it this year, as it's turned into such a fad. I guess it's good to have awareness, but as a fad, people don't understand the reasoning behind doing whatever... so it's all enthusiam with perhaps, misdirected direction.
April 11th, 2008
9 April 2008
I have new cucumber seeds compliments of Richard (of Sinfonian Garden Adventure fame)! These will be slicing cucumbers, a hybrid called "Green Slam" from Territorial. I met up with him for lunch downtown. I traded him some of my pickling cucumber varieties for his slicer. It was supposed to rain today, but clearly our lunch date was too important and the skies graciously cleared for a lovely sunny day. Seattle-sunny, actually. For any other city, it would've been a Mostly Cloudy day. Time permitting, I'll put these in a coffee filter fold to soak. The other ones are only about a week and a half old, and are working on their stub of a true leaf.
All the sprouts are growing quite nicely. Even the corn mache is slowly poking up and turning a nice deep green. I have about five wild arugula sprouts. They are so tiny! The 4 o'clocks kept growing like I never pulled them from the peat pots. The ball summer squash is going to be huge. I saw the loop emerge two nights ago, and last night, it had already unfurled. The seed leaves are HUGE, almost beaver paddles. Then again, the cucumber seed leaves are also huge, considering how small a seed they used to be in. I need to start the acorn and spaghetti squash, I think. Hopefully, I won't regret the plethora of squash at the end of the summer... still, I'm quite pleased with how easy it is to grow them to purchased seedling size.
I bought some nylon-coated wire last weekend, should be able to get some good trellises out of that. Thanks GardenGirl!
11 April 2008
Sproutling picture time! I could probably stand to put these out in the garden now, but something has been eating my radish greens so I want them to be a bit bigger before planting out. Also this heat wave is so novel that I think it won't last. What's this "summer" thing people talk about, anyway?
The squash has grown incredibly in the last five days (left to right). It's scary. I have four beaver tails formed, and probably two to follow. Guess I'll be potting these up this weekend! The smaller leaves are the cucumbers, the two huge ones and the two behind are zucchini squash. No, I don't know what I'm going to do with four plants worth of monster zucchini, why do you ask? (I suppose two will go in the P-Patch.)
Four o'clocks are doing quite well. I guess they'll go in one of the side beds, eventually.
Leafy veggies are also doing quite well at just under two weeks old. I'll be planting these into separate containers this weekend.
And finally, a few shots of my house and neighborhood at sunset tonight, just to inspire jealousy. Every once in awhile, the rain dries, the clouds lift, and we are firmly reminded of the beautiful place in which we live. ....wait, no, that's a lie! Don't move here! :D :D :D :D
April 4th, 2008
Haven't done any updating in awhile. I like that after I get everything planted and sort of going, all I have to do is wait before cool things happen. Given the long hours at work, a week can really fly by.
Here's the speedy cucumber sprouts. Only one hasn't broken through the soil yet. I think I know to not point the seed down for next time, because it makes it hard for the sprout to shed the seed coat. I moistened the seed coat, though, so hopefully that'll keep it soft enough to shed naturally.
My time-bomb 4 o'clocks seem to be doing quite well. Even the really leggy one (lower left) has slowed down its growth. Sweet marjoram (planted 3/18), small, but chugging along.
The newest sprouts on the block, 3 days old (planted 3/30): a tiny bibb lettuce "Tom Thumb" and some "domestic" (not wild) arugula/rocket. I bought some wild arugula this year from Pinetree, and still have these more common ones from Lilly Miller. They sprouted very quickly the last time I planted them as well.
Finally, the light setup that FH put up for me. Ignore the bulb in the ceiling in the distance: that's part of the basement we inherited. This is actually sort of a ledge into the crawl space under our house, so the "floor" is really a tall counter-height. It's chest-level for me, but I am short. Anyway, we bought a shop light fixture (electronic ballast) and cheap fluorescent tubes, a timer that would take a 3-prong grounded plug, a length of chain and some S hooks. Two screw hooks hold the light up. When I want to raise the lights, I just change where the S-hook from the light hook into the chain. It's a bit lilted now, as the seedlings to the right are slightly shorter than the ones to the left. I would like to add some reflective white sheeting around the plants.
March 30th, 2008
Fred Meyer had their annual planting day, where if you go buy plants, they'll pot them up for you in a pot you provide. The fuchsia were beautiful, beautiful starts. So I got 9 of them, had them planted four to a hanging basket. Varieties: {Pink Marshmallow (x2), Blue Mirage and Bella Rosella }, Lena, {Archie Owen (x2) and Deep Purple (x2)}


Fuchsia variety info:
"Archie Owen" - trailing, double Sepals, Soft Pink; Corolla Soft Pink Bronzy foliage
"Bella Rosella "- trailing, double sepals pink; Corolla Magenta. Largest blooms of all -- tennis ball sized??
"Blue Mirage" - trailing, white-pink flush/pink to blue double fuchsia
"Deep Purple" - trailing, double, white Sepals, Dark Purple Corolla, large blooms
"Lena" - trailing, semi-double, pink sepals, Purple and Magenta Corolla, Will take more sun
"Pink Marshmallow" - trailing, double, white sepals, White tinged Pink Corolla, large bloom, light colored foliage
FH picked up a rose which he had put into his old ficus pot. We had a different miniature rose before, but I can't remember what happened to it. This one is a beauty.
Then I went crazy with the repotting... the old, completely root-massed spiderplantlet in the bathroom (it had grown so rootbound, there were more roots than dirt in the pot) got its roots torn off (mostly) and repotted into actual dirt... loosened up the cyclamen, hoping that the summer sun through the windows will encourage stockier growth and blooms... finally, dissected the african violets! Per a library book, I pulled off all of the old leaves. The one that grew plantlets in water got its own little pot. One plant got repotted deeper, back into the same pot. The weird double plant (it grew itself into a mohawk) that had leaves coming everywhere, was evidently, actually FOUR different crowns. I cut it apart, tried to mash the little stem-nubs into some moist medium, covered it with a ziploc bag, and now I'm hoping they'll take.


Casualties: a couple dozen leaves, which I'm leaving in water in the hopes that they'll all develop roots. And then I will have a million AVs and will have to give some away. Oh woe. :) I'm probably going to move these into a ice cube tray when they start rooting.
Planted a Calla Lily bulb for indoors, will put the other three into a bigger container, and probably find another small pot for the last tuber. Or I could go stick it in the ground.
Removed the 4 o'clocks from the peat pellets and put them into a 9-pack square. I hope I don't kill them... had to break off some roots.
March 29th, 2008

It also snowed, hailed and rained today. Fortunately, the snow was wet and the ground quite warm, so nothing stuck. It's probably still dropping random bits of frozen water from the sky, but the air temp is a warm 44 F (yes, we get weird weather here), so I believe my sprouts will be just fine. I was a teeny bit worried they might have gotten buried in a 1/2" of snow, but nope, laziness pays off again! :D
Tomorrow, Fred Meyer is having their annual Fuchsia and Planter Planting day, where you can go buy plants, and they'll pot it up with free soil in a pot of your choice (from home, or purchased from them). The fuchsia starts have gotten a bit more expensive in the last few years. They used to be 25c per start, and now I it's 5 for $3. (You can get geranium starts, too, if you're into those.) Still, not too bad. I will try again to not kill the things. Before, they died due to forgetting to water the containers, so if they're in bigger containers, they have more of a chance. Still, besides that, I have two hanging baskets to get started!! And I love bacopa and calibrachoa... I think maybe a few upright specimens will make for a pretty porch planter. I'm refocusing on container planting, as our yard may be shuffled about, so I don't want to move more things than necessary.
March 27th, 2008
March 22nd, 2008
Been a busy last few days. I checked the garden this morning, and about a third of the Oregon Sugar Pods peas have broken through to the surface. They live! Of course, these are the frontline, so to speak. They're the ones that had the most root development before they went into the ground.
Found my arugula seeds at the bottom of the Pinetree box.
March 19th, 2008

My order from Pine Tree Seeds (www.superseeds.com) finally came in today. I now have some dwarf kale, fast-acting broccoli (Small Miracle), Tom Thumb lettuce (baby bibb-type), pickling cucumbers (Cool Breeze, F1), some sunflowers, more bush beans (Masai)... but no cotton (sad), and maybe my arugula is under the plastic seed starting trays.
I guess we're well into the "waiting" portion of the growing...

And the orchid bud:

I am horrible at these titles for the posts. Ah well. It will probably get me later.
We had a landscaper come in and take first-stock of our yards, all 5,000 square feet of it. It does have a lot of potential, I think. The first thing he offered was an patio that could be semi-private. FH started drooling in the head after that. But he made some pretty tip-of-the-iceberg suggestions that seem obvious now, but well. Landscaping (and 3D aesthetics in general) is not among my talents.
My poor 4 o'clocks were gamely sprouting along in their coffee filter, even putting out some green in the fleshy leaf that came out! Guess those little time-bombs had something substantial inside. I stuffed a whole bunch of them into the last of those dratted peat-pots. Planted a few replacement sweet marjorams, trying chives, yet again, and a whole flock of impatiens. My studio is turning into a plant factory.
I think I mentioned that the orchid is budding... it's still doing that.
Checked this morning for more sprouts in the outside garden. No new ones, though something pooped in the pea bed.
I am completely indecisive about when to plant tomatoes! Though, FH and I chose varieties this morning. We'll be going for 8.. Cherokee Purple, Blondkopfchen, Tiger-Like, Earliana, New Yorker, Jaune Flamme (thanks
penguingardener!) and SuperSweet 100s. I only hope to get utterly sick of tomatoes again.
March 17th, 2008
Status update, from my 10 second glance this morning.
Radishes: still growing
Peas: One seed "heaved" from the ground. Haha, no, it's not frost heave, as it's been nowhere near freezing. I think something picked it out of the ground, as it wasn't covered completely. Poor thing. Nothing's sprouted yet; guess it's been kind of cold.
Beets: Finally! A small loop of red this morning.
Four o'clocks: Uh oh, one shed its seed coat already in the coffee filter. Definitely must do something about that one tomorrow!!
Spinach, Kale: still there.
Sending off some acorn squash and paprika seeds to
penguingardenertomorrow...gotta make them a custom carrier out of leftover foam board.
March 15th, 2008
Peas on 3/10, just before planting. Soaked in wet coffee filter for four days (soaked 3/6).
Spinach on 3/15, with seed leaves unfurled (planted 3/2).
Radish on 3/15, seed leaves (planted 3/2). Almost all of them are up! Missing a few, though. Maybe I planted those too deep.
Bigger images in the Flickr set.
March 13th, 2008
The sweet peas I had soaking had busted out with roots two nights ago; I stuck the baggie outside yesterday in the hopes that the cooler temps would slow down growth until I get to planting them. Not sure if that worked or not. Fast germination!
Didn't check yesterday, but today, I see a pale-yellow curl of kale, a loop of spinach, and the radish leaves are all at least 5mm wide, about 80% germination. No peas or carrots or lettuce yet. Guess it's a bit cold for them.
March 10th, 2008
Put in the peas today... planting them 2" apart in a wide row got me halfway across the bed. I figure I'll put in some "succession planting" next week. Not all the peas swelled, but most did, and there were a couple overachievers in each variety that put out a 1 cm root. Hopefully I didn't do them injury during planting. I stabbed in some stray branches from our beastly tree... if they stay up, I'll string yarn across them to make some 3' tall supports, even though my peas claim to be bushy and independent (self-supporting)!
Two radishes sprouted! I almost missed them, except that I spent a lot of time pulling out a huge clump of grass growing nearby from under the bed. I got a good workout there. Everytime I weed grass I am reminded how utterly apropos "grass roots campaigning" is as a description.
Put the hydrangea in the bed where the dahlias were. Not sure if this will be its permanent home, but better than it was before. The dahlias (I found another stray tuber, but lost it somewhere in the bed) are tucked in a black bin, covered with dirt from the bed. I hope that'll keep them sufficiently moist, and in "storage". Should remember to water every now and again, but I plan on planting them around our bay window (where the old hydrangea was), so this pot home should be temporary.
March 8th, 2008
Pea swelling is going fine. All the Oregon Sugar Pods will probably have the little radical root tips quite developed by tomorrow. The seed peas for that variety are round and smooth, whereas some of the snap peas and shelling peas alternate between fat and smooth, and wrinkled. Gregor Mendel, where are your notes? I think my older seed is definitely less green, but still viable.
All three varieties of sweet peas (Supersnoop, Royal Family, Early Mammoth) are soaked, as are the rest of the 4 o'clock seeds (little bomb torpedo shaped).
We got two new pots from 1/2 Price Pots for "the Spikes" (aka the acer palmatum Japanese maple saplings from Emery's), this time, with drainage holes! FH transplanted the spikes from their sealed bottom pots. Drainage is a good thing. Also discovered that Fred Meyer has cheap pretty pots, even when they're not on sale. Hmm! An orchid pot is about $7, not too bad.
Picked up some African Violet special soil from Fred Meyer; the three plants I have are all a bit sickly looking, so I think it's time for some pampering. A month ago, I cut down one that's been hanging on in just water (big rotten mess of roots) to a single leaf, which has happily taken root in water, and produced several small new leaves. But it's still in water, so it needs a proper home. Hopefully I will get around to prettying up the house plants as well as the outside yard.
Neat new garden tool today -- it has a three-pronged cultivator on one side, back to back with a mini-hoe. Handle is extendable. This takes out those big, flat weeds in the lawn and beds like nothing else! Whack, and pull, and the whole plant and root comes out. This could also be because the soil is at that perfect moistness level right now, too. It's good to have good drainage and a Southern exposure just about everywhere on our corner lot. FH mowed the lawn today (fixed our electric mower, yay!) and our lawn actually looks pretty good! May need to overseed those areas where I pulled the weeds out, though. So, with this new toy, I weeded our herb patch, and pulled out the buggy marjoram. Will have to start another couple of those!
FH also completely turned over and weeded the small flower bed next to the porch. I pulled out the fat dahlia tubers, but missed two, and they got impaled! D'oh. I hope they survive anyway. This could be a great place to plant the sweet peas now, and have the dahlias come up later.
I am super-undecided about our strawberry bed. There's no dirt in it, but the old strawberries are putting out flowers already... what to do, what to do... new strawberries are hopefully not drying out. Need to put in the new hydrangea, too, and remake the flower beds.
No veggies have sprouted yet.
March 7th, 2008
Finally, some pictures of our "made" raised beds (everything else in our yard is still horribly overgrown and weedy compared to last year).. more pictures in the photo set on Flickr from last year, and the current state of our herb patch.
I soaked a couple dozen peas last night in our bowl-ish coffee filters... all five varieties: Two snap (Sugar Lace, Sugar Sprint), two shelling (Little Marvel, Eclipse), one snow pea (Oregon Sugar Pod II). We'll see how they are by Sunday, to see if the little embryos have poked out the root. Then it's to their new beds.
Really should do the same for the flowers. Food first!
March 5th, 2008
A few days late, but better late than never.
Saturday
Plants purchased: pack of 25 Tristar Strawberries, an Endless Blue hydrangea, two small 4" spike hybrid lavenders ("Fred Boutin" and "Grosso") from Swanson's. The two lavenders are placed into the SW corner of the herb bed, and the bareroot hydrangea and strawberries are temporarily covered with dirt until I clear space for them.
Noticed my bush peonies were trying to grow in the bag, so I planted them out by the basement door in front of the rose bush. Temporarily, as they're too close together. The front flower bed is completely overgrown by weeds again, and I haven't had the time to get it back into shape yet. Then I'll probably move the dahlia and peony around.
Sunday
FH prepped the raised beds for our veggie garden. The dirt got overturned, weeded (old onions pulled out), perlite and peatmoss added (to break up the heavy, clumpy Cedar Grove compost from last year). I pounded in nails to split the 4x6 beds into a grid of 18 (12" x 17") so as to better distribute the things planted. I tried the strict SFG method the first year in the P-Patch, and it worked okay, but I like to give the plants a little more room as I "feel like it" now. I put in beets (Red Ace), radishes (Cherry Belle, Champion), kale (Dwarf Scotch Blue), spinach (Olympia), carrots (Thumbelina), and some old lettuce seed by seed color that will probably never get used up. I'm hoping for a lush square of young lettuce leaves like at the Garden Show. All seeds were from Fred Meyer, 50% Ed Hume.
FH also tore out our old hydrangea, that barely leafed, and barely flowered. It was probably undertended, but... well, all gone now! I like the mophead type better anyway.
Annnnd, that's it. Still no pictures yet, as I can't decide which of our free/paid for image hosts I should use.
Really should soak some peas for planting, but, must sleep.
February 24th, 2008
Finished pruning roses (except for the bush one)
Pulled out onions.
Cut back blackberry brambles behind herb garden.
Installed new hose connection things (FH).
Raked out old iris growth. (FH) This will be the year to divide and resoil that area!
Transplanted Japanese Maples (The Spikes) to big 5?-gallon porcelain pots on porch.
Bought:
Pot+dish for FH's ficus at 1/2 Price Pots
Didn't get new gloves, though found old ones to be okay still (and clean, despite having blown off the porch).
$2 packet of Burpee stringless green pod bush green beans. FH likes these.
3-pack of violas for $2. They've got purple whiskers and are white tinged with purple and cream/yellow.
Still to get:
Pottage for the orchids?
Plant the peonies in pots?
February 23rd, 2008
We saw the greenhouses, which weren't quite as discounted as I remember. Charley's still had the sturdiest, but then we went home and saw the Gardenweb-recommended Harbor Freight Greenhouse, for far, far less.
(Side note: Remember www.sundancesupply.com for polycarbonate twin-wall.)
This year is the year of the peony, because not only did I buy prints of them from J, I bought two double varieties from Lilypad Bulbs: "Festivus Maxima" and "Shirley Temple".
Got our annual Japanese maple (acer palmatum) starts from Emery's Garden, "Fireglow" and "goshiki kotohime".
Finally, two Phalaenopsis orchids, one mostly white with pale pink streaks and a marked center, one with mottled purple-white and a more colored center. I wanted one that had a purple flush near the center, but didn't see any plants as healthy as the ones we got. G's mom insisted that we buy a plant that had good sturdy green leaves. She chose well!
The P-I was giving away some Ed Hume seed packets, so now we have added some 2008 packets: Heavenly Blue morning glory (which I was going to get anyway), nemophila, purple sprouting broccoli, and a collection of northwest wildflowers that FH picked out.
A random sample of compost, plus two freebie reusable nylon bags from the U Bookstore, rounds out our free stuff.
We also succumbed to the lure of some ceramic pureers, good for making garlic or ginger puree -- sounds delectable. And now we have a garlic peeler. :P For better or worse...
Did NOT find my Atlas gloves *sad*, but I think I can pick them up for cheaper than at the show, anyway. No dahlias either. I think my peonies will be filling out any extra space.
Still wants, for garden: lilac, hydrangea? Still, with the difference in pricing on the greenhouse, we can get a LOT of accessories, and other stuff!
February 19th, 2008
Greens
lettuce: esp butter lettuce
spinach
kale
arugula
Veggies
peas: shelling (Little Marvel), snap, snow?
beets
radishes
heirloom tomatoes:
Flowers?
morning glory
sweet peas
sunflowers?
Herbs
cilantro
chives
green onions
basil: Thai and Italian
repeats for friends/local Seattle folk
July 20th, 2007
Many more zucchini to come. The cucumbers are all flourishing. Tomatoes are getting quite out of control -- some green tomatoes, no color yet. I've never seen leaves so big. Strawberries are trying their best, despite our neglect. We may have lost one blueberry bush -- somehow it got all crisped. Sweet peppers have two big fruit on one plant. Eggplant is valiantly trying a blossom, despite its six leaves.
Somehow our P-Patch is doing quite well, some better than our garden at home. The beans we planted two weeks ago have almost completely come up (97% germination?), and the first batch are just flowering and putting out little bean pods. I hope we will be awash in yummy French beans soon! Good thing we have neighbors to foist them off on, hehehe.
May 30th, 2007
- Got some more plants from Fred Meyer; 2 $1 bacopa plants (fairly sizeable ones), some more petunias to finish out the row
- FH and EH hauled dirt to do up the herb patch, which was then planted. Two heathers, two cilantro, four parsley, two sweet marjoram, two basil, one bush basil, two thyme, two oregano, the remaining green onions, a sage, catnip, and the peppers I grew from seed. It's like Noah's Ark, for plants.
- I weeded the strawberry patch/rows, and added the beds of compost/peatmoss around.
- Planted the self-watering hanging basket with the SuperCascade Petunia, bacopa, and trailing lobelia
- Planted the two green plastic rectangular planters with impatiens and lobelia.
- Weeded the rose bed.
- Planted the remaining sidewalk strip under the bee tree with more impatiens from Fred Meyer ($1 for four plants)
- Moved all blueberries to east side of house. Blueberry Row!
Sunday: rained
Monday: P-Patch! Amazingly, the plot was not completely weeded over. FH went crazy with the pitchfork, and really loosened up the soil. Planted the Tristar strawberries there, the extra SuperSweet 100 tomato, a pickling cucumber from Fred Meyer (forgot the variety), one zucchini squash, one eggplant, a whole -row- of a dozen marigolds (supplemented from Fred Meyer), and the two varieties of bush beans, and the thumbelina carrots, though I don't know if they'll sprout.
--
Today:
Most plants are doing well, I think. E planted one of the sweet marjorams sort of deep and crooked, so it's trying to get up off the ground. But Parsley City is good, the catnip is under a tomato cage (roaming neighborhood cats), and all the herbs are all perky.
Almost all the peas are up, with at least one leaf, some with two. "Little Marvel" grows amazingly fast! It was barely up on the weekend, and they're almost on their second sets of leaves. "Eclipse" is plodding along, and the "Sugar Lace" have their weird little tendrils up.
One eggplant looking a little pathetic...other one is okay. P-Patch one (watered this morning) is somehow looking much better??
Cucumbers still doing well. Japanese cucumber especially. The slicing ones have white all over their seed leaves, but the true leaves are growing, so I guess I shouldn't worry. Zucchini still a bit slow.
Tomatoes are still looking kind of touchy, sort of yellowing and purple. Not sure what's wrong with them. Oh, apparently the web says they're a little too cold, can't take up phosphorus, so hence the P deficiency. I guess the 80+ F temps this week should do them well, then!
Strawberries are beautiful and lush, and starting to set fruit! The blueberry plants that were moved look much happier on this side of the house.
--
Still want to order some stuff from Pinetree Seeds... especially the cool breeze cucumber! Those were so good... well, not sure if I should get them this year or not, we seem to have plenty of cucumbers already... maybe I'll save it 'til next year.
May 20th, 2007
Went to Sky Nursery, picked up quite a lot of plant starts (yay 20% off coupon):
Flowers:
- petunia ("Sheer" Madness, "Plum Crazy" Madness x 2 along the front sidewalk strip, Supercascade Burgundy)
- pansies (Ultima Baron "Merlot", Silhouette Mix, Ultima Morpho, Delta True Blue)
- lobelia (Fountain mixed colors, Riviera "Lilac", Riviera "Rose")
- impatien (super Elfin "Melon")
- stocks (Trysomic 7 Week blend, Vintage mix)
- snapdragon (Floral Showers mix)
Vegetables (mostly by
- cucumber (Burpee Hybridx3, Japanese cucumberx1)
- sweet peppers (Better Belle green, Golden Bell)
- romaine lettuce
- green zucchini
- tomatos (Super Sweet 100s)
- eggplant (Ichiban)
Herbs:
- chives
- flat-leaf italian parsley
- scallions
- apple mint
- peppermint (YUM)
- sage
E came over and helped shovel many wheelbarrowfuls of compost around. Planting diagrams provided tomorrow. Planted two of the dahlias, too. "Chilson's Pride" ended up being a conjoined tuber, growing one stalk, so letting it grow as one this year. Planted one "Wicky Woo" by the porch.
Peas are coming up!! It's ... only taken two weeks, pffft.
We had two squalls of rain: both were sort of short, but intense. Still, lots of good gardening time in between them.
Note to self: Peat moss -really- helps improve the texture of the compost! A 3.8 cu ft bale is about $15.
Garden is definitely looking nicer... but next year, getting more seeds started!! It's so much easier now with the light setup.
May 19th, 2007
NEW GIRL
Grow this for quantities of medium-sized, avg. 4-7 oz. red fruits with rich, full flavor for sandwiches and salads early in the summer. New Girl ripens earlier than First Lady, and the fruits better resist over-ripening so they keep longer when ripe. With the still widely grown variety Early Girl over 20 years old, it's time for a successor, and New Girl is better tasting and more disease resistant. Widely adapted, so no matter where you garden, you really should try this new tomato. Indeterminate. Days to Maturity: 62
SWEET BABY GIRL HYBRID
F1 Hybrid. 1" dark red cherry, 3/4 oz, marvelous sweet flavor, long clusters, resists cracking, high yield, indeterminate, 65 days.
We have lots of room for more...
March 10th, 2007
(FH put up the lights in our basement with E's help on Wed...)
I think I've nixed the idea of rototilling our yard -- won't do what we want. We will probably use "lasagna bedding" for our garden areas -- I think it needs to stay moist, and there's the Pineapple Express this weekend, so that may be all we get done in the pouring rain, if that! Darnit, I was so hoping to get some peas planted, too... well, maybe I'll use our plastic planter thingys to start some seedlings. Got lights after all. :)
Gotta remember to upload the sprout pictures...
March 4th, 2007
Did make it out to Swanson's. For once, they still had a lot of all of the varieties of bare root strawberries. I think the price on the Tristars went up though! $10.99 per bunch of 25. We got a bunch each of the Quinault and Tristar varieties. Quinault is an everbearing variety, which means they produce once in June, and again later in the summer. Tristar, our old dependable, is an day-neutral, which just keeps going.
WSU says to set them 12" apart in a double row and to cut off runners. Trim the plant roots to 5" and place so the crown is just above the surface of the soil. Pinch off all blossoms until the plant has five big leaves. We planted them about 6" apart in the P-Patch (16 plants in a 2'x4'), which is really too close together.
FH also bought a 1 gallon rosemary "Tuscany Blue" there... it smelled pretty mellow for a rosemary, which should be pretty good, as most of the time I think they're too pungent. He's put it into the northwest corner of our property, where hopefully it and our old sweet bay will defend our property against the invading ivy and himalayan blackberry on the other side. It was super rootbound when we pulled it from the pot.
The roses are doing fine, for all their vigorous pruning. One of the side bushes is almost completely leafed out. Maybe I should've pruned it more, but it didn't look the same type as the tea-hybrids. I hacked off a good chunk of the evergreen purple blooming shrub, but it doesn't even miss it. I wanted to do more, but it was getting dark, and the yard waste bin was full. Good thing tomorrow's yard waste pickup day!
Measured the side yard (next to the car park) -- roughly 28' N-S, 21' E-W. Pretty big spot. Maybe we can have flowerbeds surrounding 4x4 squares?
Temps: 45/55 F
March 3rd, 2007
We went to Fred Meyer and found a long length of chain with four S hooks for about $7, so tomorrow we should be able to hang the big 4' lights up. I think I'd better think about getting some more things to start... maybe... I only have 2' (maybe) of starts! Oh, I guess I could start germinating some lettuce and stuff. Hmm...
Tomorrow is the last day of the Swanson's bare root sale. Must get our strawberries for a new strawberry patch!
I have also prettified this journal and stolen a user pic (from Wikipedia of sprouting sunflower seeds) for it too!
February 28th, 2007
Also, started a bunch of seeds in peat pots: all our herb seeds (parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, cilantro, basil (italian and thai), sweet marjoram, baby basil, catnip) and some flowers (impatiens, four o'clocks, stock) and peppers (jalapeno and sweet mini yellow).
[Day+2] Nothing's sprouted yet.
February 20th, 2007
Oh right, the loot. Two new Japanese maples (taller sticks, this time) from Emery's (a 'Beni Kawa' and a 'Bloodgood'); three new double dahlia tubers from Connell Tubers ('Wicky Woo', 'A la Mode' and 'Chilson's Pride'); 2 vertical planter things (the tri-lobed pots); 2 Atlas gloves; and two blueberry bare-roots ('Chandler' and 'Sierra'). And a 'shroom box for fresh shiitakes. We were tempted by one of those fabric collapsable buckets, but not this year. I think Charley's Greenhouse was the greenhouse we liked last year; they seem to have good sturdy product for very reasonable prices (plus their catalog has tons of other gardening supplies).
I sent an email out yesterday to the P-Patch coordinator, and she wrote back with news confirming that there was a P-Patch near us (within 6 blocks?), but it's not yet fully developed for gardening, just yet. She'll put us in touch with those organizing the effort, and see if we can get involved. On the more immediate side, she also said that we were first on the list for the Fremont P-Patch ("Whirled Peas", get it, aha ha), and that we could get a plot assignment in as soon as a week. So! It's pretty exciting that we can have an organic plot to go grow stuff in right away, not to mention meet up with some new people.
On the home front, the workers came by again, and wah, our yard is nearly unrecognizable. Yesterday they left giant mounds of ivy and blackberry, today the tree is barren (of ivy) and the mounds are gone. Half the original beds are cleaned out, and we nearly have lawn definition in a few places! Seriously, the tree looks so much better... except for the parts that were hacked off in an amateur attempt to fell the tree. Hmm. Well, I think we might let it grow another year... it's looking a bit more graceful now, at least at the base. From certain angles. The tops need to be pruned, though, or we lose our view. But the vacating of the ivy has made our yard seem so much larger. I think we actually see our full ~6k sq ft of land now.
Still trying to figure out what to start early... and a planting schedule.
February 19th, 2007
Now if it would only stop raining... :( And now we have some 4-5 yardwaste bins worth of chopped up ivy and blackberry canes.
Also pondering the clematis, gladiola, etc. from Costco. Didn't see any calla lily though; esp not the pretty kind I got a long time ago.
February 13th, 2007
"Scattergarden" Mix (Strawflower; Aster-Crego Mixed; Calendula - Single Mixed; Plains Coreopsis; Bachelor's Button-Mixed; Clarkia; Cosmos-Sensation Mixed; Chinese Forget-Me-Not; Larkspur-Giant Imperial Mixed; Gypsophila Elegans White; Corn Poppy; Black-Eyed Susan; Marigold-Crackerjack Mixed; Zinnia-Cactus Mixed; Godetia) ... sounded good; sprinkle = instant cut flower garden
Impatiens, Tempo Pastel Mix (LM)
Morning Glory, Early Call, Tricolor Mix (bush habit)
Larkspur, Giant Imperial Mix
Sweet Peas, Supersnoop Bush variety
Sweet Peas, Royal Family Mixture
Greek Oregano
Thyme
Sweet Marjoram
Kale, Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch
Carrot, Parisian Market
Beans, Tendercrop Stringless, Bush
Now to get planting :D
February 6th, 2007
Musing again.
Got a basement now, so we can start seeds... all those little sprouts that got washed away because they weren't watered every day can now live! (I hope.)
Herbs: basil basil basil, chives, green onions, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, mint, cilantro?
Leafys: arugula, corn mache, tom thumb bibb lettuce
Veggies: peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans (french baby fillet, et.)
Flowers: sweet peas, impatiens, petunias, larkspur (H), violas, snapdragons, dahlias, morning glory
Heh. If we get to even half this list, it'll be good.
July 26th, 2006
Monday ~ there's a huge number of little guys! Going to be swamped in cucumbers, I hope! And I seriously need to build them a trellis... they're starting to sprawl.
Strawberries are as ever, delightful.
Beans are about to need their strings, too.
Squash has definitely beaten death, though it's green and lilty, and has one small yellow bulb.
Tomatoes are good, may see the first tomato in a few weeks. very small green ones.
Peas are dead.
Onion patch looks like someone's dog ran through it; they've never recovered. Sigh! Maybe we'll plant more beans there, since I seem always able to plant beans.
February 5th, 2006
Peas - (bush) Sugar Sprint (snap); (vine) Eclipse (shelling), both very supposedly very sweet
Beans - (bush) French baby filet; (pole) Kentucky Blue
Green Onions - standard Evergreen branching
Zucchini - Black Beauty
Sweet Peas - Early Flowering Mammoth
So, that's 6 packets. Lots of peas and beans, both of which grow well for us, and taste good, too. Hopefully the peas will do better this year, and I'll actually remember to put in the sweet peas!
February 1st, 2006
Okay, here's the short list for new seeds:
- Green Beans - Masai (P), Kentucky Blue (P)
- Cucumber - Lucky Strike (P) ?
Had more, but I think FH lost my list. :( Well, will update more later, also after we visit the Garden Show (next next weekend).
March 20th, 2005
Mar 19 - Have a good handful of peppers now. At least two each from the new seed (Jalapeno and Yellow Bell) and one of the old hot pepper mix. Two are near to furling out the seed leaves! That should do it for us for the season... sadly. :)
Also staple-gunned Matt's leftover yarn to our raised beds. Now we're doing real Square Foot! Uncovered the burlap. The strawberries look most excellent; I think all of them have new green growth. The brussels sprouts are looking at little purple and yellow around the seed leaves, but seem to be okay still. Might have gotten a bit cold for them. No peas have sprouted :( And the Walla Walla onions seem to have put forth new greens that grew into the dirt because of the burlap covering.
The arugula and lettuces are doing well. I think the light colored lettuce seeds haven't germinated at all! But I have at least 7 of the dark varieties. They look nice and squat. Unfortunately, the wild arugula isn't doing so well -- very tiny sprouts! I may have to wet paper/baggie them... 'domestic' arugula is almost an inch across in its seed leaves now.
I wanted to plant some daikon radish and spinach and such today, but alas, it was too wet! We picked up two more bags of planting compost at $4/1.5 cu ft, and an 8 qt bag of seed starting mix. The soil mix we have is just too coarse. I plan to start the seeds in the seed starting mix, and then transplant them to cell packs that are bottom filled with the usual potting mix.
FH thought about doing asparagus... hmm...
March 13th, 2005
Planted about 16 strawberries in the 2x4... maybe some of them will die off, but they're really quite jammed in there. Two brussel sprouts planted in the other 2x4, other two in pots for FH's dad. Planted two squares (16x2 ea) of the Walla Walla starts and red onion bulbs. Inoculated my soaked peas (from earlier in the morning) and planted those. Apparently the tubers we dug up from the ground were in fact dahlia tubers (the previous owners had grown them), so maybe I'll have replacement dahlias! I will try growing them later.
The soaking the peas got seemed to puff up some into big puffy peas, and the Sugar Ann snaps (oldest seed) didn't seem to take to it at all. Well, if they don't sprout, no matter... I've plenty more new seed.
I finally planted the new soaked sweet pea seed into the ground at home, where the tomatoes were last year. The other varieties haven't sprouted at all, so maybe not as urgent. Or they're rotting away with too much water. Hah. The arugula seed leaves are almost up (collectively) to the size of a dime now. I left the lid on them outside today, and maybe they got warmer temps that way. No idea.
FH cleaned up a lot of the leftovers from last year, and also put two of our poor neglected heathers into the ground. One behind the second snowdrop, one tucked in by the rose. Also planted his sweet bay into a new pot. The violas he got last year got cleaned out of the square ceramic bowl -- so root bound, the bottom edges were white! No wonder the plant stopped growing.
And I believe that's the state of the garden.
March 12th, 2005
Anyway, FH and I got the frames dug in, and mixed the existing soil with a healthy chunk of perlite. It looks like we poured in bagged soil mix. ;) I think the existing soil is pretty good already; we probably just need to add in a healthy handful or two of compost when we plant and things should be just dandy. Our plot looks a lot different now!
The arugula seedlings are still doing quite well, and a lot of the lettuce is popping up. I'm not sure if I want to get a bag of soiless seed starter or just pour out some perlite and grow in that to start seeds. Speaking of seeds, I went to get some more while Fred Meyer was having their 50% off sale. Now we also have: leeks, spinach, daikon radish, corn mache/salad, cilantro, italian flat-leaf parsley and chives. Oh, and a big bundle of Walla Walla onion starts. The onion starts weren't very expensive ($1.70) and there's got to be at least 50 of them in the bundle. And they smell good -- very onion aromatic.
There was also a whole sack of pearl onion sets at the p-patch site today that someone brought in. Giant sack. We may take some; will see...
Some of the early flowering sweet peas have put out roots, the newest packet I bought. The other wet ones are looking a little moldy :( ... I haven't decided if I want to get fresh seed or not. :P I wonder how hard brussels sprouts are to grow... we don't like them, but FH's dad really loves them. He helped with the frames, so it's fair that we grow something for him! We could get a seed packet, or just buy a plant.
So, now to finish laying out the garden via Post-Its...
Thursday morning, I left them outside on the balcony. When I got home, the sprouts were green. Some of the shallowly planted lettuce is 'raising' its head too.
Friday, the pan was out all day, but the top blew off! I'm hoping the newest lettuce sprouts aren't air dried to a crisp :( The arugula looks quite healthy, and one of the wild arugula seeds has two teeny baby leaves. The other lettuce seeds are showing the loops. Nothing from the peppers yet (as of the morning). The newest packet of sweet peas has developed roots -- will have to plant those tomorrow! The other (older) packets aren't as enthusiastic. I may have kept those seeds too long! FH says the blueberries are kinda dry too; I hope this doesn't affect the blossoms currently setting.
Gabrielle recommended corn mache, or corn salad green. It looks intriguing, and she says it's not bitter at all, packed with vitamins, and has a sort of nutty taste. Sounds great! my poor shopping list...at least now with the real garden, I have a hope of using more of the seeds in a seed packet. Current shopping list: (cool weather) corn mache, spinach, daikon radish, chives, italian basil, italian parsley, vermiculite, bag of seed starting mix. Still want to obtain: squash/zucchini, edamame, corn. Read up on companion gardening too...
March 8th, 2005
6 Hot Pepper Mix (2002)
4 Early Jalapenos (2005)
4 Miniature Yellow Bells (2005)
In a pan:
Arugula (wild)
Arugula (domestic)
Lettuce 3 x 9 (of each shade)
Soaked in a ziploc: Sweet Peas
- Early Flowering Mammoth (2005)
- Sweet Dreams (2000)
- Knee Hi's (2000)
- Burpee Patio (2000)
Now we shall see when they sprout... also sort of planned out the SQFT layout... lots of extra space. What to do, what to do... I do really hope the peas finish before the warm weather stuff needs to go in! Good thing we have a long spring.
March 6th, 2005
It seems there's lots of things that can be started in the ground now, too, but I want to give the sweet peas a good soaking first, and then drop them in both plots. Also want to start peas and lettuce for outside, and start the peppers in the Jiffy pots (for ease of transplanting). I hope we can give them enough light... may just leave our Ott-Lites on under our desks in the study or something, since that room's closed off to the cats anyhow.
Happily, Fred Meyer has most of their seeds on 50% off this week (with notable exception of the asian seeds, but we weren't going to get three of those anyway), so whee, may pick up some more. FH wants a mushroom log, so maybe I'll piggy back some seed orders with him. I should go plan out the square planting so I have an idea of how much strawberry planting we can do. A whole bed of strawberries sounds divine! (Though, I just checked, and it appears we missed the bare root sale at Swanson's. Pooh!)