Starting Seeds

I started a bunch of seeds this weekend and turned my enclosed porch into a greenhouse. It gets lots of light and is few degrees warmer than the surroundings. I think I need a space heater though for cold, windy days like these. I can't wait when the temperature is reliable 55 degrees F and above. The Brussel sprouts love this weather, but the peppers and such won't germinate. I sowed them anyway since I mixed a giant vat of seed starting soil.


This Saturday, I started:
Heirloom tomatoes, Brussel sprouts, sunflowers, cathedral bells, coneflower, black beauty zucchini, striata zucchini, lemon cucumbers, English cucumbers, chili peppers, bell peppers, mini basil, pesto basil.

Plant together:
Peas and Cucumbers
Peppers and Corn
Tomatoes and Basil
Lemon cucumbers and herbs

Renee's Garden

Just received my 2nd order of seeds from another distributor - Renee's Garden. I really look forward to the edamame, english cucumber, cathedral bells, sweet peas and this *french flounce carnation flower poppies". It's actually a poppy, not a peony nor a carnation. I googled a picture of it and it really looks like a peony.



Photo from dkimages

Pre-Garden Excitement

Last week I received my first shipment of seeds from Kitchen Garden Seeds (John Scheeper's). I look forward to spring and gardening so much that I sat on the couch oogling my seed packets all night.



Then for Valentine's Day, Keith gave me a bag of goodies including some new gardening gloves and a mini tool set from Target. It's so cute and I can use it when I start my seeds indoors instead of using an old spoon.



We *happen* to be at Home Depot and I just *happen* to walk into the gardening section. The displays of seeds were already out, but I ordered most of mine online, so I only picked up a few herbs. Instead I picked up a bunch of miscellaneous things that I might need throughout the summer. If you wait till summer, most of this stuff is gone. I got garden twine, flexible plastic ties, plastic, labels, bamboo stakes and some expandable ties.



Some herbs like Parsley take a really long time to grow, so I'm going to start those this week with some planters that I already prepared with soil.

Renee's Garden

These are so pretty. I'm excited to see how these turn out. Cathedral Bells.

5322	Cathedral Bells Vine	1	$ 2.69
5046	Poppy, French Flounce	1	$ 2.69
5349	Sweet Pea, Garden Orchids	1	$ 2.69
5164	Sweet Pea, Lipstick	1	$ 2.69
5459	Basil, Mini Windowbox	1	$ 2.69
5455	Basil, Italian Pesto	1	$ 2.69
5500	Lavender, Hidcote	1	$ 2.69
5198	Bean, Edamame	1	$ 2.69
5620	Cucumber, Chelsea Prize	1	$ 2.69

John Scheepers

8300	Bravado Purple Coneflowers	1	2.75
7060	Opus China Asters	1	2.95
2130	Lemon Cucumbers: 60-70 days	1	2.65
2010	Silver Princess White Sweet Corn: 74 days	1	3.65
3420	Super Sugar Snap Pea: 62-66 days	1	2.85
3440	Snowflake Snow Pea Pods: 72 days	1	2.85
3580	Quadrato d'Asti Giallo Bell Peppers: (golden-yellow)75-85 days	1	2.65
4280	Costoluto Genovese Tomatoes: 80-85 days	1	2.75
8620	Sonya Sunflowers	1	2.95
8320	Oriental Silk Poppy Mixture	1	2.75
4040	Striato d'Italia Zucchini: 50-60 days	1	2.65
5110	Fresca Strawberries

Must stop looking at seeds

I told myself I wouldn't plant anymore veggies next year, but now that I have been looking at sites like John Scheepers Kitchen Garden, I want to try new veggies!

Keith really wants me to try growing Asparagus. It takes 3 years to develop a good plant before you should harvest it. Fall time is the time for Garlic so I can do that. I am tempted to try Brussel Sprouts. I definitely want to try Artichokes. Once started (in January), they grow as perennials! Nice! The snow peas and snap peas did very well, so I will plant lots of those again.

Then, there are also all these edible flowers. I really loved the way my snowball marigolds looked amongst my veggies. I just might try some of these edible flowers such as Nasturtiums, Dianthus and Violas. Nasturtiums and Dianthus were also on Martha Stewart's website. Blue Flax seems like another flower that would be very useful. It's a Perennial too and can just fill the "empty" areas of the garden.

Lessons learned:

-I dug too narrow an area for all my veggies. I have to dig an area 3x as wide in order to create the nice raised beds I need to space each plant out enough, provide support, and to allow Keith to mow the lawn around it without hurting my plants.

-One of my zuchinni and squash plants were so far from my other plants that it was never pollinated to produce fruit. Also, it made it difficult to water. We are adding a plastic order to our beds in order to edge the grass and contain the dirt. We have an old hose that we're going to puncture holes into, in order to water the plants more easily.