Onion Experiment

In Organic Gardening Magazine, I read an article about planting the ends of green onions in dirt. They had a really neat picture of the white parts of the onions in potting soil and another picture of the same onions all grown and ready to use. I decided to give it a try. We made a layered bean dip the other night and I asked my fiancee to save the bottoms of the green onions. The article suggest using loamy soil but I just stuck it in the same soil I have an avocado pit in (the avocado pit will take a while to root so why not). I assumed it would take a while but to my surprise, the next morning, it already had some growth to it! Take a gander:

More seed starting...

Seeds I started yesterday are:

• Kung pao peppers
• Onions while lisbon bunching
• Impatiens
• Egg plant black beauty
• Marigold-French and Safari mix
• Chamomile
• Catnip
• Echinacea pullido
• Nicotiana
• Larkspur
• Sweet William

I hope I have enough garden space for all this! I don't mind a crowded garden! This year, I don't want to see any dirt! LOL :)

It's Official, I'm Addicted to Seed Starting

This is my first official year of seed starting! Last year, I started seeds a little late in the year but I promised myself that I would start earlier this year. Yesterday, I planted some long thin cayenne peppers. Those will be super spicy. I'm planting them for my dad for father's day. He loves spicy foods and I hope this plant will produce a lot of peppers for him to eat!!!

Tomorrow, I have the day off so I'll start some more seeds! I'm going to start Kung Pao Peppers today and I'll give my dad those plants too. He'll have a variety of peppers to choose from! I also plan on starting the following:

• Kung Pao Peppers
• Onions White Lisbon Bunching
• Impatens
• Eggplant Black Beauty
• Marigold Safari mix and dwarf mixed
• Chamomile
• Catnip
• Echinacea
• Nicotiana (white)
• Larkspur
• Sweet William

I'm so glad I got enough peat pellets from Wally world. I got several boxes of Jiffy-7, 72 peat pellets in each box. It ended up costing me around $.05 per peat pellet! What a deal!

I'm also going to finish packing the seeds for my trade with quartney from yougrowgirl.

Package from Thompson and Morgan

I got my Thompson and Morgan package today! I bought 12 transplant pots and 4 water wizards (for watering). I got all of this for only $4.00 (the cost of shipping). Here's a picture of the contents:

I already screwed the wizards onto the 2-liter bottles to make sure it fits and it does! I also got some free seeds for ordering too. I received some ornamental corn and echium seeds (don't have the slightest idea what this is) for free too!

I also started some more tomato and pepper seeds last night. I was planning on giving out a few to my coworkers as a kind gesture. Here's what I planted last night:

• Pepperocini Peppers
• Spicy Peppers
• Sweet 100 Tomato
• Patio Hybrid Tomato
• Tiny Tim Tomato
• Roma Tomato

The weather has been up and down lately: one day it's sunny and the other day it's raining. I guess that's a sign of spring. Only 1 month before the last frost date! I can't wait for the frost date to come.

Regardless, I'm still gardening outside. I have some cool season vegetables outside: peas, chard, radishes, lettuces, onions and garlic, etc and some of my bulbs I planted in the fall are sprouting and blooming already (who knew!).

Garden Organization

Tuesday was a gardening clean-up/organization day. I filled all my containers with dirt just to ensure that I had enough soil for all my containers. Lo and behold, I didn't have enough. I'll be trekking to Lowes in the next couple of days to get more soil. Sigh...This year I'm using a potting soil called, "Gardener's Potting Soil". It looks and feels great! I hope it'll perform this year. I also got their compost too. Great stuff!

I'm attempting to have a container garden this year since I might be moving to an upstairs apartment in which I won't have any land to garden with but instead a balcony. I hope everything I attempt to grow in containers will be successful. I bought these watering caps that screw onto 2 liter pop bottles from Thompson and Morgan so I hope they'll maintain the water consistency in my soil. Fingers crossed!

The weatherman predicted rain for this week so I wanted to have everything clean and tidy and sheltered for the rain.

Seed Trade List

Wants:
Beans-scarlett runner
Beans-purple podded variety or any variety
Pea/Bean inoculant
Sweet or hot peppers
Tomatoes, any variety
Coleus seeds, any variety
Geranium
Nasturtiums
Nicotiana
Hollyhock
Luffa
Poppies
Sweet peas
Bok Choi
Swiss Chard (Bright Lights)
Eggplant (small size variety)
Container veggies
Thyme
Herbs

Trades:
Flowers
Alaska
Daisy
Aster, Crego Mixed Color
Baby’s Breath
Bird’s Eyes
Black Eyed Susan
Butterfly Bush
Yellow Catchfly
Chelone Turtlehead Pink
Chinese Forget Me Not
Chrysanthemum, Summer Festival
Cosmos, Sensation Mixed
DaylilyFalse Sunflower
Forget Me Not, Blue Alpine
Helianthus, Lemon Queen
Helichrysum tall double mixed
Hollyhock, Majorette Mix
Hollyhock, Burgandy
Maltese Cross lychnis chalcedonica
Marigold Petite Yellow
Marigold French Dwarf
Marigold Madness
Marigold, Safari Mix
Monarda Lambada Bee Balm
Morning Glory, Mixed Colors
Nasturtium
Petunia
Poached Eggplant
Poppy, Oriental
Poppy, Shirley
Purple Majesty Millet
Purslane
Rose Campion
Snap Dragon, 1st Ladies Mixed Colors
Snap Dragon, Tall Deluxe Mixed ColorsStock
Sweet William tall double mixed
Sunflower maximillion
Sunflower (tall growing variety)
Trumpet Vine
Zinnia, Giant Double Flower

Herbs:
Lemon Basil
Oregano

Vegetables:
Beans, Top Crop
Beans, Kentucky Wonder
Beans, French Filet
Beans, Yellow Wax
Broccoli, De Cicco
Brussels Sprouts, Catskill
Cabbage, Early Golden Acre
Cantaloupe (sweet)
Carrot, Chantenay
Carrots, Danvers Half Long
Cucumber, Poinset 76
Eggplant
Eggplant, Cloud 9
Honeydew
Lettuce, Grand Rapids Tipburn Resistant
Lettuce, Oriental Leaf Mix
Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson
Okra, Clemson Spineless
Peas, Sugar Snap
Pepper, Jalapeno
Pepper, Ornamental
Pumpkin, Jack-O-Lantern
Pumpkin, Triple Treat
Purslane
Radish, French Dressing
Swiss Chard, rainbow mix
Tomato, heirloom
Tomato, Marglobe
Turnip, Green-Seven TopTurnip, Tokyo Cross Hybrid
Watermelon, Crimson Sweet
Watermelon, Sugar Baby

Flower Seeds

On Saturday, I planted a lot of flower seeds. I decided to plant them outside because I don't have much room on my grow shelves until I transplant my lettuce seeds. The weatherman says it will rain in the next couple of days so I'm going to wait to transplant the lettuce seedlings on Friday.

Here's a list of the flowers I planted on Saturday:

• Cupea Matchless (Cigar Plant)
• Physalis Alkekengi (Chinese Lanterns)
• Hollyhocks (Majorette Mix and Burgandy)
• Shasta Daisy (Alaska)
• Calendula (Pacific Beauty)
• Tithonia Torch (Mexican Sunflower)
• Aster (Crego Mixed Colors)
• Morning Glory (Mixed Colors)
• Marigold (Petite Mixed Colors)

Spider Plant Spiderettes are Planted

I layered the spiderettes last night. Most websites say it will take around 7-10 days for them to root. I can then sever them from the mother plant afterwards. I really hope they root and grow. I would like to keep one at work and give the rest to friends and family.

I hope to start some new seeds today. I think I'll start them outside since the weather has been so nice and it seems like everything I plant outside always turns out better than the ones I have under grow lights. I guess nature is supreme above all! I found these discarded seed trays the other day so I'll be starting new seeds in those. I'm just so happy that the weather has been so lovely. I can finally be outside in my garden and actually garden! My car thermometer said it was 70 degrees outside. Yippee!

My New Spider Plant

The weather here is just so lovely. It's been in the high 60's and low 70's and nice and sunny. My only hope is it will last. Unfortunately, the weatherman said that it will rain this Sunday :( It was good while it lasted though.

For Valentines, my fiancee bought me an African Violet. I don't like the idea of buying cut flowers since they'll be dead in a couple of days. An African violet will last me much longer than cut flowers. He also got me some gardening gloves, bearded iris bulbs, and a gardening pot (for the bulbs). It was a lovely and thoughtful gift!

In this weekend's ads, OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) had a 10% off sale on all seed starting supplies so I stopped in before work this morning. I didn't see anything I really wanted but instead i saw this beautiful spider plant. It was in a huge hanging pot and was so heavy to lift. I bought it for my grow shelves. It already had some baby spider plantlets, which I hope to pot up and make more spider plants as gifts. I'm going to try the propagating technique known as layering. I'm excited to see if it works!
I also transplanted some seedlings in bigger containers. I was using jiffy peat pellets and the roots were hanging out of the netting so I moved them to red plastic cups.

Thompson and Morgan Fun!!!

Today, I ordered garden supplies for the spring. Thompson and Morgan has a special $10.00 off coupon with no minimum requirement. I bought some water spikes and some transplant pots. The total was $14 and with the coupon, I only spent $4 for 4 water spikes and 12 transplant pots! I can't wait for them to come in! Since it's been raining, I can dream and look at catalogs!

Rain Rain Go Away...

It's been raining this weekend so there's not a lot of gardening going on. I can't wait for the rain to go and the sun to come out!

Flower Seed Starting

Last night, I started some more seeds! I looked at the various seed packets I was going to grow this spring and saw that I should be starting some flowers since it takes a while for it to germinate (8-10 weeks). Eek...I'm in the seed starting mood! I should be starting more seeds next week and the last week of February.

This is what I started:

• Marigold Safari Mix
• Tomato (Jelly Bean Hybrid)
• Zinnia Thumbellina mixed colors
• Snap Dragon Tall Deluxe Mixed Colors
• Creeping Daisy
• Snap Dragon 1st Ladies Mixed Colors
• Petunia Pearls Azure Blue Hybrid
• Petunia Prism Sunshine Hybrid

The top of my fridge is bombarded with all these trays and containers full of jiffy pellets or seed soil! I'm glad I have a stock pile of jiffy pellets!

Tomato Seeds I Started

I started some tomato and petunia seeds the other night. I find seed starting relaxing and fun. I spent over 2 hours in the kitchen preparing, planting, and labeling. Here's the list of things I planted:

• Tiny Tim Tomatoes
• Patio Hybrid Tomatoes (they're designed to be placed in pots)
• Supersweet 100 Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Roma Tomatoes
• Marglobe Tomatoes
• Petunia Seeds I collected last year. I hope they sprout!!! Fingers Crossed.
• Petunia Seeds from a packet

Over the weekend, my bf bought me a grow light set up and since he's an electrician, he wired it up so there are switches for me to turn on and off. He's so sweet! I'll have to post some pictures! I love it!!!!

African Violet Clean-Up

A couple of days ago, I repotted the suckers from my African Violet I got from the Dollar Store almost 8 months ago. They stopped blooming and I kind of forgot about it until I noticed that it was overly crowded! After the suckers grow a little bit, they're much easier to handle. I popped them off with an xacto knife. The following picture is what I believe are suckers.

Here is a picture of the suckers that were removed and potted up in seed starting soil. I hope they root and make me more African Violets.

Here is my African Violet free from all the suckers.

First Gardening Experience

I thought I would create a blog for all my gardening experiences and as a journal for future reference. This is my first post. Here we go...

My first gardening experience was in 2005. I went out and bought a Jade plant and a Hawaiian schelferra for my apartment. I then wanted to grow some chives so I went out and bought some seeds for $.79 and a jiffy pellet set with 12 spots for peat pellets. Since then, I have been hooked with gardening. At first, I was more interested in vegetable gardening but now I'm into anything that grows! I soaked the little pellets and planted the chive seeds being careful to get at least 1-2 seeds in each pellet. I stuck it on top of my fridge and a couple of days later, they sprouted. I left them on top of my fridge because I wanted them to get bigger. That was my first gardening mistake. The seedlings became leggy and to correct that error, I used an old college lamp I had to give it some light.

Here is a look of my chive seeds when they sprouted.

This is my first plant I grew from seed! Chives. They were super easy and it looks like they're growing quite well.