Garden times...

Squash seedlings (click to enlarge)

Yesterday, I repotted my little African violets into bigger pots and I planted more bean seeds but instead of in pots, I direct seeded them into the ground. I started some top crop beans and also some Kentucky wonder beans.I also planted more watermelon radish and sunflower (a Walmart variety) seedlings in the ground

Hyacinth bulbs (click to enlarge)

My garden is filling in nicely. I have pea flowers blooming with tiny little pea pods forming, geranium flowers blooming, bulbs poking their head out, lettuce getting fuller and radishes getting nice and round. I also planted my asparagus peas into a square I had empty. I noticed that I had 6 more squares empty. Any suggestions?

I brought some of my extra tomato, pepper, and zucchini seedlings to work today. However, they took a beating in my bike basket and some dirt shook off but all in all, they had a great ride with me to work. My coworkers are appreciative of the green presents. The peppers were of an unknown variety. I had to label them "a" and "b" because I forgot to label the peat pellets when I planted the seeds. oh well. We'll soon find out what they are if and when they fruit.

Lately, to conserve energy and mostly gas money, I've been using my new bike. I bike to work and mostly anywhere around town that's 2 miles from where I live. It only takes 10 minutes to bike 2 miles including stop signs and traffic lights and plus you get some exercise. I rationalize bike riding as me trying to help save the environmnt. hehe. Yesterday, I biked to my local Rite-Aid and found some good deals on herb seedlings. I got some English thyme and sage for $1.50 a piece. They also had some rosemary and cilantro for sale but I already purchased some rosemary at Target earlier this season. I also got some seeds here. They were only 10 for $1.00 so I got 10. I got some cauliflower, marigolds, zinnias, annual cut flower mix, and beans. I put some beans in between some wet towels to see if they germinate and some of the seeds, I plan on sending to my seed-trade partner this month.

Well I guess that's all for now. Happy gardening everyone!

Garden Update 03-29-08

Okra Seedlings (click to enlarge)

Today I was busily spending lots of time in the garden. I moved my bell pepper seedlings, dill, fennel, Mexican Honey tomato and stock seedlings into bigger pots. I also planted more radishes (watermelon radishes) into the ground as well as sunflower, asparagus peas, and black zucchini seedlings.

I'm also going to attempt to try getting some green beans to sprout. I have some seeds I got from a trade and my coworker gave me some the other day. I am soaking some purple peacock, romano, top crop, and tendergreen beans tonight so I can plant them tomorrow. I truly hope they sprout! Wish me luck. I also plan on planting some more nasturtiums seeds. I have some that have sprouted but I hope to grow a bunch. They look so pretty last year.

On Friday, I planted more flower seedlings: zinnia-thumbelina, aster, marigold, lams ear, calendula and sunflower maximillon. I noticed that I didn't have enough flower seedlings the other day. I believe my veggie seedlings

I also put some stakes down to distinguish my square foot garden and I noticed that I had six squares empty. I think I'll plant more herbs like basil in some of the squares but I don't know what else. I need some low growing veggies b/c my these squares are in front of my cucumbers and tomatoes and they need as much sun as they can get. Any suggestions?

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Garden Update 03-27-08

Herb Seedlings 03-28-08 (click to enlarge)

This past weekend, I decided to repot my herb seedlings into terra-cotta pots I got at Michaels. They were only 3 for a $1.00 so I got six of them along with their terra-cotta trays. They make the best looking herb pots. I only wish I had bought more. I also planted additional seeds into each pot to get a fuller look. In no time, they’ll sprout and I’ll have healthy-looking growing herbs.

This past week, I’ve left my veggie plants uncovered risking slug/snail damage but to my surprise, I haven’t seen any damage this week. I’m so happy. My bok choi plants seem to be bolting which makes me sad but hey I might just let it bolt so I can collect seeds from them in the summer. Then I’ll have tons of Bok choi seeds (wohhahaha…this is my evil laugh) lol.

On the flower seedling front, I finally have one single little four o’ clock seedling. It took it 27 days for goodness sakes. I will give it credit though. It does have a hard “grenade” looking shell on it. I’ll have to take a picture of it tonight.

Everything in the garden is looking good. The lettuce is getting fuller; the Bok choi is growing well, the peas are flowering, and tomato and pepper seedlings are growing strong. Soon, I’ll be planting sunflower seedlings and watermelon radishes. Well, that’s it for today. Happy gardening everyone!

Herb Seedlings Update 03-16-08

Thyme 40 days (click to enlarge)

Catnip 40 days (click to enlarge)

Chervil 13 days (click to enlarge)

Lemon Balm 40 days (click to enlarge)

Cilantro 12 days (click to enlarge)

Cilantro 12 days (click to enlarge)

As promise from the previous post, I'm posting pictures of my herbs. They've grown so well!

Today, I spent a long day in the garden. It was extremely windy today and I got a lot of dust and dirt in my eyes but I continued on.

I planted more swiss chard seedlings, morning glory, hollyhocks, and some butterfly orchid seedlings into the ground today. I also set up a string trellis and oh boy was this a bad idea in a wind storm. I spent a good ten minutes untangling the mess.

Great Weather!

Lemon Basil at 8 Days

Thai Basil at 8 days

The weather has been very spring-like with temps in the high 60s and low 70s. I’m a little hesitant with how great the weather is. I’m afraid that next week, we’ll have lots of rain and thunderstorms. I guess you can’t live your life worrying all the time so I continue my gardening adventures but with a critical eye on the weather.

On Friday, I started some more seeds that include: marigolds-safari mix and French double mixed, edamame, sunflower-tall variety, sugar snap peas, nasturtiums, morning glory-crimson rambler, and eggplant-black long variety. I really hope they sprout especially the nasturtiums. I planted some nasturtiums last week and they haven't sprouted at all. I plan on planting them with my tomatoes to detract pests from getting to my precious tomatoes.

In part of my garden, that only gets partial sun in the early/late morning so this year, I plan on growing some cool weather veggies in that area. It's around 2' by 5' so I want to grow lettuces with successive plantings throughout the season, radishes (watermelon and cherry belle variety), bok choi, cabbage, swiss chard, peas, leeks, mint, cilantro, lemon balm, thyme and beans.

I noticed that I have sprouts on the hyacinths I planted on March 3rd, sunflowers, radish, and great lakes lettuce I planted last week. I also saw that my spaghetti squash seeds and cucumber straight 8s have sprouted (it took them 14 days to sprout! eek). I might have to start more cucumber seeds tonight. I want a lot of cucumbers this year. Last year, I only got 1, yummy and delicious cucumber but this year I want at least more than 1.

None of my zucchinis or squash seeds have sprouted either. Note to self: start more tonight and keep them inside. Speaking of failures, I have no success on the beans I planted outside 18 days ago. I guess I'll have to start them inside. It looks like I have a lot of seed starting tonight (cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and beans). Oh the joys of gardening!

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Happy gardening everyone!

Next up: an update on my herb seedlings! eek. They're doing so well...

Collecting Flower Seeds (Calendulas)

Five days ago, I planted some chicory, flax, and okra and there’s already sprouting occurring with the chicory. I got the chicory seeds from grocoseeds and I hope it really works. Chicory can be used as a coffee substitute. We’ll see how well this works!

I also have sprouts on my cilantro and calendulas. I grew calendulas last year and they were pretty yellow and orange flowers. I also collected seeds from these last year. The seeds were easy to collect since they look like half moons. If you’ve never collected flower seeds before, I suggest trying calendulas for your first time.

They flowers look like these:

What the seeds look like after they flower:

Mature seed pod. Takes around 3-4 weeks

Mature seeds. You know you have mature seeds when they fall off easily.

Tomorrow, I plan on planting more sweet peas and transplanting more lettuce seedlings. I’m also going by the post office to drop off my package to my March gardening partner. Happy gardening everyone!

Herbs and Peas Sprouted 03-08-08

Lettuce (59 days) is doing well. Click on image for larger picture.

Today, I noticed some sprouts on my herb seeds: basil (lemon, thai, sweet, and big leaf). It has only been 4 days. That just means it's already spring! There was also some action on my marjoram and chervil herb seedlings. I was surprised to see that my herbs are sprouting so fastly. I also noticed one asparagus pea seedling peaking it's tiny little head out. I am interested in seeing how these will do. I'm not sure what asparagus peas are but they say you can steam cook them. They look like this.

I also noticed that my peas are finally starting. It took them longer than I expected...around 9 days but hey that's better than nothing. I can just see the yummy peas in our dinners. This year, I plan to have succession plantings of peas to ensure I have tons of peas this season. My garden faces westward and there's a part of my garden that only gets morning sun so I plan on planting cool season veggies all season or as long as it stays cool on that side of the garden.

Nothing much else going on in our garden except for the occassional weeding and cleaning up. The daisies from our wedding are on its second set of blooms. They're small but I think they'll look pretty in a vase. Happy gardening everyone!

Garden Update 02-27-08

Roma, Jelly Bean, Black Cherry and Brown Berry Tomato Seedlings at 23 days

(click on image for larger pic)

Gardeners Delight Tomato Seedling 23 days (click on image for larger pic)

Red/Gold Currant and Lady Bug Hybrid at 23 days (click on image for larger pic)

The weather here has been very nice with temperatures in the mid 60s and tomorrow, we’ll experience our first 70 degree temperature. I wish it could stay this way forever. I just checked my seedlings I started early this month and found some peat pellets bare with no seedlings. I quickly remedied that by adding the same seeds of the bare pellet’s brothers and sisters. I only had 1 eggplant seedling and I had originally planted 8 seeds so I added additional seeds to the bare pellets. I also started some Numex Big Jim peppers and some more patio tomato peppers today. I hope they’ll sprout and be ready by next month. Here’s hoping.

On Sunday, I started some more herb and flower seeds. I started some pink nicotianas I got from a round robin exchange. I love being apart of this group. It’s like your birthday every month. You get new gardening presents from a different person every month. This month, I got a nice package that had so many different varieties of seeds ranging from coleus to nicotiana and included in the package was some plant labels. I, too, send stuff to other people as well. It works out well. I send my left over seeds to someone who might use them. It works out really well. Anyway, forgive the side track. I also planted the following:

• Stocks
• Calendula (saved seeds)
• Cosmos
• Dill
• Shoofly
• Chinese Lanterns
• Chinese Houses
• Shirley Poppies

Coleus Seedlings

Today, I also set out my precious coleus seedlings to get them used to outside temps which is lovely! I hope they’ll be fine out there. I might cover them tonight but the meteorologist predicts temperatures tonight will be in the mid 40s so I think they’ll be fine tonight. On my lunch break, I planted my Bok choi, Swiss chard, and cabbage seedlings. I always water newly set seedlings with a combination of fish fertilizer and water so they get an added extra boost. I covered them with pots since it was the middle of the day and I didn’t want them to shrivel up and die. I’ll uncover them tomorrow morning so they can get a full day of sunshine. I can’t believe it’s almost Spring. Slowly, my garden will get filled with lovely veggies and flowers. I can’t wait! In a couple of days I'll be starting my squash, cucumber, sunflowers, and basil seeds. Yesterday, I started some peas and beans too. Is it spring yet? Eek...Happy gardening everyone!

Garden Update 02-22-08

It's raining here in central California. Forecasts predict that it will rain all weekend long. They also predict strong winds. The last time it was windy, a lot of my pots fell over and dumped a lot of soil so this time, I'm going to be proactive and put all my pots along side my wall so they have some wind protection.

Boxwood Cuttings Rooted

My seedlings appear to be doing well. I have way too many seedlings for my shelves but they manage happily. I did check on my boxwood cuttings and they have done wonderfully. They've all rooted and some have tiny little growths on them. I'm so proud of them. I neglected them for a long time keeping the plastic bag over them for a couple of months. They are doing well. I hope by the beginning of spring, I'll be able to take them outside and pot them up. I'll probably give some away since I have so many. My coworkers won't mind if I leave plants on their desk. I just gave one of my coworkers a coleus plant I had. I have tons of coleus now that I have a ton of seeds. She loves it and I hope she won't kill them. As I was walking to work with my coleus in hand, I was calculating the cost for that little plant and I guestimate it to be around $.30-$.40 cents for it and how it would be a wonderful gift to give one. Oh the joys of gardening...I love it!

Garden Update 02-19-08 (Herb Seeds)

I know I haven't posted in awhile but we've been away house sitting, dog sitting, and teenager sitting at my new aunt's (aunt by marriage) house. I apologize for my absence. I have dropped into my apartment to check on my garden periodically this past week and I just wanted to say that my herb seeds are doing well. I have germination on most of my herb seeds. Here's a few to show: We have thyme, oregano, and catmint seedlings.

Thyme seedling 8 days old (click on picture for larger image).

Oregano seedling (look real close) at 8 days

Catmint seedling at 8 days (click on picture for larger image)

Garden Update 02-09-08

Supersweet 100s (click on image for larger picture

Red/Gold Currant and Ladybug Tomato Seedlings (7 days)

Marglobe Tomato Seedling (7 days) (click on image for larger picture)

These are some of my tomato seeds, more specifically my supersweet, Red and Gold Currant and Lady Bug, marglobe, and tomatoes I planted a week ago have sprouted. A week is pretty accurate. Last year, it took my seeds 9 days to sprout. So, they are officially 2 days early! They're our little preemies. I can't wait to get my own home so I can garden in a bigger space. We currently have a backyard that is probably 10 feet by 10 feet to garden with. This is much bigger than my other apartment backyard which was half the size I have now.

Today, I plan on planting some butterfly orchids, zinnias-Giant Doubled Flower, hollyhock-majorette mix, chinese houses, shoofly, coleus, hollyhock-burgandy, maltese cross, echinacea, and Chinese lanterns in a 72-cell pack.

Pretty Coleus Seedling (click on image for larger picture)

On an ending note, I just wanted to show you guys my pretty coleus seedling. I potted it in one of my favor pots I gave away at my wedding. At the end of the wedding, there were a ton left so I took them home to garden with! Recylcing in action I guess...

Garden Update 01-12-08

Seedlings (click on image for larger picture)

The seeds I planted earlier this week which include three types of lettuces (bibb, iceberg, black seeded simpson), bok choi, swiss chard, brussel sprouts (de cicco variety), radish with have all sprouted with the exception of the celery (tall variety).

Impatien Seedlings (click on image for larger picture)

My impatien seedlings are doing well and growing tall. In a couple of weeks, I'll put them in a big pot so they can bloom for me. Impatiens are said to be great houseplants.

The other day when I was out running errands, I went to Lowes to get another storage bin and could not resist the temptation to go out to the garden center. I was surprised to what I saw there. It was wonderful, they had all their seed starting equipment (i.e. seed trays, soil, peat pellets, pots, and seeds) aligned neatly in the middle of the aisle. I then went outside to the actual garden area and there were so many blooming things which include primulas, geraniums, violas, cyclamens, and more. I happened across an aisle that had these shelves with all these distressed plants lined up and I could not resist taking a look. There was a sign on the shelf that said everything on the shelf was 75% off. I immediately got excited and found a Christmas cactus for a $1.00waiting to be picked up and given some tlc(the Lowes employees neglect these poor things). My new Christmas Cactus, which I call Fred, is sitting prettily on my desk at work under a fluorescent light that is on most of the day. I don't know what color the blooms are but maybe I can get him to bloom by spring and see! I bought his sister Christmas Cactus a couple of months ago at Walmart for a couple of bucks and she's a beauty. She blooms these glittery white flowers.

I then went to Walgreens to pick up some toiletry items and found in their ad that they were having a sale on their seeds 10 for $1.00 with coupon. These were the American Seed company variety which are cheap anyway but this was a deal I could not resist. The coupon limited a person to only 10 seeds. However, I have a contact at Walgreens who happens to be the manager and he allowed me to buy $5.00 worth of seeds. I have a variety of basil (sweet), sweet corn, California wonder bell peppers, daisies, sunflowers, zucchini, cucumber, morning glories, eggplant, squash, and more! If you're too late for this sale, they typically sell their seeds for only $.20. I would personally wait until they come out with another coupon for 10 for $1.00 seed.

I then went to Walmart and they too had a selection of racks of seeds from the Walmart brand and Burpee. There are some on the burpee rack I'm interested in (specifically the supersweet 100s that I tried last year and it produced tons of tomatoes). There were some herbs I was eyeing too like (thyme, lime basil, and fennel). I'm just so excited to see all the garden things out so soon. I couldn't wait til all the Christmas decor was moved out of the garden center and replaced with what is supposed to be there: gardening accoutrements. Walmart also had some 50% off sales on some of their houseplants. My husband pulled me away before I got a chance to pick one up but as I was being tugged away I saw that most of their pothos were on sale for $2.22, which originally went for $4.44. I might just have to take a little trip to Wally world in the near future! hehe. Well, that's all for now. Check back next week for more gardening updates!

Garden Update 12-31-07

Broccoli De Cicco Seedling (6 days)

I started some broccoli de Cicco, Cabbage Early Golden Acre, and Italian Parsley seeds today. The broccoli seed is from my own crop. The funny story about this one is that I started it last fall and it survived to the spring. In the spring, it began becoming leggy and it flowered. I kept it for awhile I neglected it. My husband saw this and decided to become its savior and put it in the ground. The broccoli survived and bloomed beautifully. I let it stay where it was, although, I needed the spot for a pepper plant. It grew and grew then I saw some seed pods so I let them dry. I collected it and this is the story of my first collected vegetable seed! If it weren’t for my husband, I wouldn’t have had the great experience of getting my first collected veggie seed. I pre-germinated some of the seeds and it worked.

The cabbage is called early golden acres I bought from American Seeds and the Italian parsley was from a trade (my first box trade). Parsley takes a while to germinate so I hope it works and maybe I’ll be able to collect seeds in the spring for my own future crops. I wasn’t planning on growing cabbage but I was inspired by this video I found on you tube where a gardener grew these big heads of cabbage. The video is from a you tube user called, beutifullady . This is one of her many videos which she calls: how does your garden grow. My plan is to grow 4 cabbages, 4 broccolis, and two containers full of Italian parsley. I recycled these ice cream cups from the grocery store. They’re the ice cream that has orange sherbert and vanilla ice cream mixed together. I used a hot nail to punch holes in the bottom. I recommend doing this in a well-ventilated area to prevent the horrible fumes.

Yesterday, I made a list of seeds I want to try next year. It’s pretty hefty but I can’t help try new seeds! I think I have 8-10 tomato varieties I want to try. Eek. I’ll have plenty of leftovers to give to my friends and family. I’m excited about the New Year and its many gardening adventures.

Garden Update 12-12-07

I know it's been awhile but I have been super busy with Christmas shopping and decorating our place for our first Christmas. I still have been tending to my plants inside. My coleus seedlings are still doing well. I'll put them into individual peat pellets or little pots soon. By spring, I'll have tons of coleus to enjoy and share.

The ornamental pepper I got on clearance is starting to die. I purposely let it commit suicide since I just wanted it for its seeds. I took some seeds from it earlier this month and I germinated them and success!

In the next couple of weeks, I'll be planting my early spring crops: broccoli, parsley, and cabbage. I'm using the square foot gardening as a guide. It's a wonderful way to garden in a small space. I would recommend it to anyone. Well, that's it for this week. Next week, my order from grocoseeds and maybe valueseeds! We'll see...Happy gardening everyone!

Coleus Seedlings and Cuttings

Last Thursday, I was at Lowes looking at all the pretty plants and I happened across a seed rack of fall vegetables. I stopped and perused the different types of lettuces, peas, beans, spinach, radishes, and lettuce seeds. As I was leaving, something caught my eye: a packet of coleus seeds. Two weeks ago, I had ordered some coleus seeds from groco.com and they hadn’t come in yet so, on an impulse, I bought it (since then, I’ve received them). On Friday, I potted these tiny little seeds in a leftover salsa container with holes punched in the bottom for drainage. I covered the container with plastic to keep the humidity high and placed them underneath my grow lights. Today, I noticed I had some growth! They are very minute and tiny but nonetheless some action!

Some advice I would suggest in planting coleus seeds is

1. Mix the seeds with sand and sprinkle the mixture lightly over dry potting soil (I
   use regular potting soil rather than the seed starting mix b/c it’s a lot
   cheaper).


2. Cover the seed/sand mixture with a light dusting of more potting soil


3. Sprinkle enough water to moisten the mix


4. Cover the container with plastic wrap (I use a rubber band to secure the plastic
   wrap to the container) to maintain humidity


5. Once the seeds have germinated, slowly take off the plastic and
   
   
   

Coleus Seedlings (very tiny) For a bigger picture, click on the picture.

It took 7 days for the seeds to germinate so all in all, I believe it was quite successful. Now I patiently wait for it to grow bushy so I can take cuttings and propagate them and give them away as gifts!

Speaking of cuttings, I recently went around my work and got some cuttings and seeds. I work at a university and I know the facilities employees very well and they know me as the plant girl. I am always asking them for cuttings from wisteria vines and left over seed trays. The university is well known for its landscape and abundance of ponds (we have 6-8 ponds sprinkled across the campus). The plants vary from rose bushes (the president’s donor rose bushes that go for $200.00 a plant, needless to say I didn’t “sponsor” one) to geraniums, wisteria, ginkgo biloba trees, Japanese maples, pines, daylilies, agapanthus, etc. etc. etc.

Daylily Plant I collected seeds from...

So, about two weeks ago, I went on a break and noticed that the daylilies were producing a lot of seed. I asked the gardening department if I could collect these and they of course said go for it (they’re super nice). So I went around and collected a ton of daylily seeds. I probably have ½ a pound of daylily seeds from all around the campus. Anybody want some? Check out my trade list for trades. I also collected agapanthus seeds as well.

I also took some geranium cuttings (red and bright pink colors), semi- wood cuttings from different bushes and plants and some pine cones. I put the cuttings in a pot with a freezer-size zip lock bag over them. I put them under my grow lights and will let them stay there for a couple of months. They have good company with my ivy and boxwood cuttings. Well that’s all for now. Happy gardening everyone.

April Showers Bring...May Showers?!? What...

Tangerine seedlings from some store-bought tangerines (at 30, 52, 70 days respectively)

The beginning of May has seen days of hot sun, wind, clouds AND rain. The rain is like an unwanted visitor. It shows up whenever it wants! But, the weirdest thing is the heat. We had two days where it felt like summer, the temps were in the mid 90s which is odd for the beginning of May. My garden, on the other hand, appears not to notice the weird weather fluctuations we’ve been experiencing. The tomatoes are growing like crazy. I have a Super sweet tomato in a white five gallon bucket and it’s about 4 feet tall and blooming. Once it reaches 6 feet, I think I’ll trim the top to keep it from growing more. Strangely, I have another super sweet tomato in a 3 gallon bucket and it’s only 3 feet tall. My advice: the bigger the container the better.

My stocks are blooming and the snap dragons have bloom clusters but no blooms yet. The petunias are blooming steadily. Every other day, I have to dead head the flowers to encourage more flowers or else, they’ll go to seed and die, which is what I don’t want.

I finally cleaned off my garden bench that was inundated with seedlings. I planted four additional tomato plants in the ground (jelly bean, tiny tim, cherry, and an unknown variety). So as of today, I have 11 tomato plants in the ground! I’ll have tons of tomatoes by summer. I have super sweets, romas, cherry, patio, tiny tim, and jelly bean. I also planted some more jalapeno and bell pepper seedlings into the ground too. Instead of committing plant genocide, I decided to give away a lot of seedlings to the other people in my complex. I took a box of seedlings and put them in the laundry room with a “Free” sign and by the end of the day, not a speck of dirt was found.

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.

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.