Last Frost Day

I harvested some radishes and lettuce the other day and I made a yummy salad for dinner. I've noticed that radishes grow really well in the sun rather than the shade. They grow much faster and bigger!

Today is the last frost date for my area. Yeah!!! After I get off from work today, I want to plant the various variety of tomato plants (Supersweet 100, Large Cherry, Marglobe and Roma) in the ground or in their own individual pots. I'm going to put plastic around the tomatoes in the ground for added insurance. The seedlings have been doing well in their pots but I think it's time they get some time in the dirt. The sooner they get in the ground, the sooner we get tomatoes!

I'm going to leave my cool weather (swiss chard, radish, lettuce and onions) plants in the ground so that means the tomatoes will have to share the ground with the other plants until the c-w plants mature.

Flower Arrangements

I decided to bring some flowers inside to bring "spring" indoors. I've decided that I like flowers of one color in an arrangement or the same flowers bundled together in a vase. The yellow calendulas are in a vase that my fiancee made me. The purple flowers are bearded irises and they're just so pretty by themselves! I love how spring just creeps up on you and then springs in when you're least expecting it.

Tomato Transplanting and Cucumber Seed Starting

I also transplanted one of my patio tomatoes into one of my self-watering containers and one of my supersweet 100s tomato in a 5-gallon bucket. I also rearranged my white garden shelves to the other side of the patio. Before, the shelves were in direct sunlight during the day and hogging up the sun from my containers so I simply moved them and now I extended my garden by 4 feet! In its place, I put the self-watering pots and tomatoes in its place. Now, the tomatoes will have 6-8 hours of sunlight instead of 3-4 hours when it was next to the fence. I decided to move it today because there’s a chance of rain tomorrow and Tuesday.

It's amazing how over a span of one year, your garden can be transformed from a barren canvas to a live and yieldy garden. Last year was my first true attempt at gardening and I haphazardly placed plants in empty spots due to my lack of gardening knowledge. For example, I wanted honeydew melons so I thought I could grow it in my little 6' x 7' garden. However, I didn't know that melons required a lot of space and by the end of summer, it had not only taken over half of my garden but also half of my concrete patio! This year, I'm more organized and have a new approach to gardening called "Square Foot Gardening" and it's the best. I can grow so much more in such a little amount of space! It's just wonderful! Right now, I'm growing an assortment of onions, lettuce, swiss chard, radishes, and turnips, all in one half of my garden. Compared that to the honeydew melon plants that took up half of my garden and only yielded me with 2 melons! Yes, you got it right, 2 melons!

Here's a picture of last year's garden:

This spring and summer, I'll be growing tomatoes (4-5 different kinds that include patio, supersweet 100s, marglobe, roma, and jelly bean), peppers (bell, peruvian, kung pao, and jalapeno), squash, cucumbers, onions, garlic, peas, cilantro, and so much more!

This year's garden using Square Foot Gardening Techniques

I have peas along the fence (Oregon Giant, Dwarf Grew and another one), strawberries (Sequioa), geraniums are in pots on the shelves (I propagated this from stem cuttings last winter and they've grown like weeds!), there are also some seeds I started here in the salmon-colored flats (mostly flower seeds), and you can see my tomatoes on the table.

I also planted some cucumbers and squash this morning. I planted Straight 8 cucumbers, Marketmore cucumbers, and a bush type cucumber. For squash, I planted early prolific straightneck. Hopefully, we will get a lot of squash and cucumbers this year.

Peas and Seeds...

Yesterday, I decided I hadn't had enough seedlings so at around 9:00 pm (you know you're addicted to gardening when you start seeds at around bedtime), I started some more:

• Impatiens
• Poppy Shirley Red
• Bok Choi (seeds I got from a ygg)
• Thai Basil
• Purple Opal Basil

I found that peas need to be wound around stakes or string on a daily basis. I find myself early in the morning, with my knees on my rectangular foam pad twisting the pea plants around the string I hung from the fence. The peas seem to grow a couple of inches everyday so this pea routine is an everyday thing. The early mornings are relaxing for me. I find I can do a lot of things early in the morning (putting away dishes, making the bed, picking up around the place, laundry, etc). It's a time I cherish. I get to go around and look at all my plants in my garden and on my grow light shelves.

Nice Day Outside!

I planted cosmos single sensation, cilantro, rosemary and rose campion seeds yesterday. It was a nice day outside so I spent the better part of the morning outside. However, the afternoons are getting a bit hot (in th 80's). I shouldn't complain though since it is nice and sunny outside.

My tomato seedlings are doing very well. They're getting thick stems and more leaves! They'll be ready to transplant soon! I've been acclimating my tomato, pepper (both peruvian and jalapeno), marigolds, etc outside. I think I'll be able to transplant my seedlings next week in the ground! The only problem is: I have my cool weather seedlings in the places where my warm weather seedlings will need to go. The seedlings are still pretty small so I think they'll be able to share spaces well.

My strawberries are producing flowers like crazy. I've already counted about 10 flowers and they're still more blooming. I have 12 strawberry plants and I hope they'll be able to provide enough for me and my fiancee. We'll see how well they grow! This is our first year growing strawberries and I hope they're not too difficult to care for. Speaking of strawberries, my alpine strawberries I started from seed are doing well:

I am also apart of the staff committee here at work and we're going to have a St. Patrick's Day party. Instead of the usual prizes that every office gives (a coffee mug with candy) we decided to give plants as prizes and we also bought the usual office prizes too but we improved it by giving frozen mugs with gum and candy (all green). The plants are super cute and the pots are green and white. I'll have to take some pictures to post. Here are the prizes.

Crocus or Croci?

I just wanted to post some pictures of some crocus bulbs I planted last year. I forgot where I put them so it's a pleasant surprise to find them here and there in the garden. The flowers are so delicate and small. It's like what they say...big things come in small packages.

The first picture to the left is a picture of new crocus bulbs coming up. The second picture is a crocus plant ready to bloom and the third picture is a picture of a crocus in bloom. The blooms, unfortunately, do not last for more than a couple of days though.

I also have some Mexican Torch Sunflowers blooming. The blooms are big and either orangey or yellowey (as if these are real words...but they do describe the color of the flowers).

Yesterday, I transplanted my zinnia thumbellina seedlings and tiny tim tomatoes into six packs. I'm going to leave those outside since the weather has been so nice. It's been in the low 70's during the day. I wish I could work outside but alas, I must go to work! :( I'm excited that daylight savings time is this weekend. We get an extra hour of sunlight! Yippee!

I bought some Sequoia Strawberries from Home Depot and I transplanted them on Tuesday in the ground and in some hanging baskets. I hope we get tons of strawberries!

Seedling and Project Updates

Here is an update on my garden endeavors. The Onion Experiment is doing well. Here's the comparison picture:

The first picture is of 1 day and the second picture is of 7 days. They're growing exponentially daily! My seedlings are doing well. The tomato seedlings I planted only a week ago are already sprouting.

The outside seeds (hollyhock, daisies, morning glories, marigolds, asters, etc) that I planted on February 17th are showing signs of life finally.

The petunias I love so dearly are up and running. Petunias were the first flower seeds I've ever sown and they were the first blooming flower that was the result of my tender, loving, care so it will always have a place in my heart! (LOL...but it's true!).

Yesterday, I transplanted the tomato and marigold seedlings that were getting way too big for the peat pellets. The containers I used to transplant them were recycled from milk, punch, and oj cartons we had left over. Those containers are wonderful. They're perfect for the recycling gardener since they were designed to hold liquid in the first place so there's no worries about it leaking, it's also really big so you don't have to transplant several times before the frost (i.e. tomatoes), plus they're free!

I also bought my first Aloe plant and 12 sequoia everbearing strawberry plants. I hope they'll produce all summer long. I plan to plant them in my hanging baskets.

Transplanting of Cool Season Crops

Today, I transplanted all my cool weather transplants. I transplanted my pearl onions, chives, Swiss chard, lettuce, radish, and spinach seedlings outside in my garden. When I transplanted them, I watered them with a diluted solution of fish emulsion. I'm attempting a technique called, "square foot gardening" and it's wonderful b/c everything has a space and I can grow even more. It's so neat and orderly! I'll have to get my camera out and take some pictures. I hope they’ll mature by the time my hot weather plants need to go in (cucumber, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes). I now have more room on my grow light shelves for other seedlings such as pepper, tomato, more onions, flowers, eggplants, basil, etc.

I planted more seeds outside today in cell packs and the window cell pack I had the onions, lettuce, radish, and swiss chard in. I'm leaving them outside for awhile since the weather has been so nice and mild (high 60's and low 40's). Here's the list!

• Purple Opal Basil
• Sweet Basil
• Zinnia, Giants
• Zinnia, Giants of California
• Zinnias, Classic White
  Zinnias, Dwarf Thumbellina
• SnapDragons, First Ladies Mix
• SnapDragons

Cool Weather Gardening

The rain is gone for the rest of the week. Sunshine is predicted for today through Monday then the rain comes back for a second round for Monday night and Tuesday. I plan on putting some cool weather vegetables in tomorrow and this weekend. I need to transplant my Swiss chard, onion, lettuce, and radish seedlings into the ground. The nights have been dipping into the mid 30’s so I think I should be fine with putting those crops in the ground. Besides, if it gets really cold, I could just cover it with my makeshift cover I have (it’s basically a very large Tupperware box that has a crack in it) or with some old sheets. Either way, I can’t wait to get dirty. I also need to start some basil seeds for the spring. I have basil in almost everyplace I have tomato plants so that means I’ll need a lot of basil seedlings.

I’m still planning my little plot of dirt (6’ x 7’) according to the square foot gardening guidelines. I absolutely love this method and this will be my first year attempting it so wish me luck. The book was a very easy read too. I think I read most of it in a couple of days. I have tomatoes, peppers (different varieties of course including bell pepper, Peruvian pepper, jalapeno pepper, Kung pao pepper, and long cayenne peppers), cucumbers, squash, eggplant (black beauty), strawberries, and peas. I’m also attempting to grow more flowers this year. I want several that I can cut and put in vases for my apartment.

My strawberry bareroot plants have signs of life after a week of rain and sunshine. I see one green leaf emerging. I hope they all perform well. They were really inexpensive so if they don't produce, it's ok.
I went to home depot this morning and saw so many plants I want to get. Instead of impulsively buying everything I saw (which included aloe, a snake plant, ming aralia, hanging prayer plant, bok choi, and ever bearing strawberries) I resisted and wrote everything I wanted down. I'll research how to grow them and see if it's my spring plans. If so, I'll be going back there to pick them up!