What's Growing?

Besides, me, that is. . .

It's been a very cool spring, and I feel like I've hardly been outside at all. However, we did start our garden early in April, and there are definitely things coming up. The strawberries came up all on their own, although grass is starting to infiltrate. I keep meaning to do something about that, and then I think about how hard it is to get onto the ground, now that I'm so round.

We'll see how the strawberry crop does, without any help from me. This year, by the time the strawberries start ripening, I should have the baby. Last year, they were ready right at the beginning of June. I'm scheduled for my c-section June 9th, so I'm counting on coming home to some nice, ripe strawberries, even if they're a week or two late.



I still haven't put seedlings in my regular garden yet, mostly because it's been so cold. Last year, I planted them the last day of April, but it's still getting down into the 30s many nights, so I want to wait another week or so. For now, it's just spinach, carrots, and peas growing in my big garden. I haven't considered what I'm going to do when it's time to plant. You see, Greg didn't make any kind of gate to walk through, so you have to step over the 3 foot fence in order to gain garden access. I cannot climb over a three foot anything right now, so we might have to take the whole thing down just to plant the seedlings.

I did have to repot most of the seedlings, though, because they had totally outgrown the seed starting greenhouses I put them in, way back in March. They're still up in my bedroom, under the lights.

I guess they're doing alright, although I'm hoping to get them in the ground very soon. I planted peppers, tomatoes, sage, thyme, cilantro, parsley, basil, broccoli, and some other seeds I don't remember. Unfortunately, I've lost the labels once again, so I will have to guess what these plants are when they get bigger. I'm starting to learn just by looking at them.

I have everything planted in a hodgepodge of peat pots, old plastic pots leftover from things I bought last year, and empty tupperware containers.

My garden certainly isn't as ambitious as last year's project, but I feel good about what I accomplished, despite being pregnant. Hopefully at least I'll get some produce and herbs to use.

Gardening Update

We finally got the garden ready for spring on Sunday. Despite the threat of rain, we went to Lowe's and filled the cart with soil, compost, mulch, a new rake, and some anti-rabbit fencing. I'm determined to defeat the bunnies this year.

It didn't end up raining until after dark, and Sunday turned out to be lovely--it even got into the 70s. We added the good stuff into the soil and mixed it all up, and Greg put up the bunny fence. Do you think it will work? (Oh, how I hope so!) I'm so proud of how we all worked together to get the garden ready. Greg was really helpful, now that I'm getting bigger and can't lift anything.

I planted spinach, early peas, and tons of carrots so far. I also planted a bunch more seeds to go under the lights inside. I'm hoping we'll be able to eat some spinach this year, unless we have kamikaze bunnies who try to jump the fence. Last year they ate every single morsel of spinach.

Oh, and remember when I had to rake leaves with a snow shovel, because we didn't have a rake? Not only did Greg buy a new rake, we also found a little man rake for Nick. He loves it, though he hasn't mastered the art of actually raking quite yet. But he's trying.  :)

Please don't eat the seeds!

Last week, on one of those random warm days, Nick and I decided that it was time to plant some of our seeds. I'm obviously not going to be as gung ho about my planting as I was last year, but I'm still hoping for some decent produce. My weeding, however, might be significantly reduced, seeing as it takes me a sold minute to get down to the ground. Let's not talk about how long it takes my pregnant body to get up.

Our first step was hydrating the soil pellets in the little greenhouse. Nick enjoyed helping with that, although he spilled as much water on the floor as he got onto the soil pellets. Kids always love when the pellets start to grow--it looks like magic to them.  I bought one of the greenhouses that had 75 little pellets. That should be enough seeds to get me started. I still had plenty of seeds left over from last year, when I ordered from the Seed Saver's Exchange.

I think Nick is just excited to be outside again. I am too, to tell you the truth. It's interesting how we don't go outside at all for four or five months out of the year, and then suddenly it's nice enough to sit on the porch. We did notice something fishy on our front porch, though. . .

Yup, that "Welcome" pole with fall decorations and the scarecrow has been there since September. My mother-in-law got that for us a few years back, and this year we forgot to bring it in. At one point it was covered in snow. I guess it's time to bring it in, since it is now officially SPRING.

Here are the seeds tonight, about a week later. They've pretty much all sprouted and are doing well under the lights. I just bought another ten kinds of seeds from the Seed Saver's Exchange, so we'll see if I'm too late to plant those as well, once they arrive in the mail.

Oh, what did I plant? Is that the question? Sigh. Nick kept trying to eat the seeds. He called the bigger ones "beans" and it was all I could do to keep them away from him. I wasn't paying attention while I was planting, so I couldn't tell you what is what.

I'm never very good at remembering what I planted where. I remember I had the same problem last year. I know that I did 2 rows of tomatoes and peppers and at least 1 row of everything else, including lots of herbs. I think I planted broccoli, too. Nick was distracting me as I was planting, and I lost the paper where I had written down which seeds are which. Oh well. I'll figure it out eventually. I'm just proud of myself for remembering to plant the seeds!

Garden Update and a Dark, Handsome Visitor

I haven't posted in awhile as to the state of my garden. Thank goodness my plants seem to thrive on neglect, because I was gone for a few days in Chicago, and then it was too hot to go outside most of last week. I was outside on Friday, watering the plants (and Nick) with the hose, and I got some nice surprises. Let's start with the front porch. I planted way too many seeds, and thus I have extra tomato plants living here. I believe these are yellow pear tomatoes, or they will be when they're ripe. I bought both Roma and Yellow Pear tomato seeds from the seed saver's exchange, but most of the Roma tomatoes succumbed to either bugs or too much rain. Nature at work, I guess. I love this picture because of the angle. Greg's new camera rocks. You can see my sedum growing in the background, as well as my salvia.

Everything in the actual garden is bigger and greener, except for the carrots, most of which were eaten to the dirt by my bunny "friends." All of the empty spots in the garden were originally either carrots or spinach, and they disappeared due to rabbit reasons. I do have a few carrots left, at least for now.

I think you can see my peppers, basil, tomatoes, and broccoli from here. No flowers on the broccoli yet, but the tomatoes are doing well, and I have enough basil to last literally all year. Oh, and yes, I know that i planted the broccoli too close together. Live and learn. I'll do better next year. I just hope I'll get some broccoli this year. My peppers haven't made any peppers. Actually, I saw a baby one a few weeks ago, but it "mysteriously" disappeared. It was those bastard bunnies, I'm sure.

Here's what I think must be a Bushy Cucumber. Either that or it's some weird alien vegetable.

Oh, look at what's growing. It's. . . oh, it's junk leftover from the fireworks last week. Argh! I've picked up at least ten separate pieces of fireworks debris, and I'm sure there's more. I caught Nick playing with another one of these earlier today. Hopefully they're not harmful.

I love this picture because it catches the blackberries and the sunset at the same time. They're not ripe yet, but they are looking good. The raspberries, unfortunately, are not making raspberries. Just leaves. Sigh.

And here we have. . . (drumroll please) the first tomato of the season! It is a Roma, so at least one of the Roma tomato plants must've survived. It was small but delicious, and I hope that more are to come.

This evening, I had a dark, handsome visitor to my strawberry/catnip patch. He comes from next door and enjoys the ambiance of the mini-garden. I've let this part of my garden go, since the strawberries are done strawberrying, and I mainly just pluck catnip leaves for my cats, who are addicted. So this patch is filled with weeds and tons of flowering catnip. And one happy pussycat.

Sprouting Seeds and Bad Lighting

Nope, it's not just Nick sprouting at our house this week. Although he is looking taller to me these days, and his face is starting to look less babyish and more kid-like every week. No, the reason for the sprouting is because I re-read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" a couple of weeks ago.  You see, I ordered a bunch of seeds from the Seed Savers Exchange, and they arrived on Saturday. I ordered the stuff that Greg and Nick and I like to eat, including: red pepper, sage, broccoli, yellow and red tomatoes, basil, thyme, rosemary, spinach, green beans, cucumber, and several kinds of squash. I got really ambitious on Sunday. . .

When I read the packages, many of the types of seeds said "start indoors 6-8 weeks before the expected date of last frost." Now, I am no gardening expert, (frankly, I'm just now learning how NOT to kill plants) but I know that I'm in zone 5 and that means May 25th is the earliest date to plant most crops. So I figured that I'd better get cracking. I looked up (on e-how, actually) how to build a seed-starting shelf, printed out the directions, and headed to the Home Depot. Now, I should tell you that putting things together is not my greatest skill. The last shelf I put together fell apart minutes after construction. But lately I've become more determined. I told myself, "Melissa, you have a master's degree. You can build a simple shelf that's listed as "moderately easy" in the directions!" And I did.

I'm rather proud of myself for managing to build this on my own. The shelf was simple enough, but I actually had to hook up the wires to add a plug for the lights. My neighbors must wonder about the lights 16 hours a day in the open window. I swear I'm only growing heirloom vegetables and herbs. Note the pointing baby in the photo; lately he keeps pointing out every window and yelling something that sounds like "outside." It was far too cold for me to take him to play outside today, though. But my seeds were sure warm.

Fluorescent lighting makes everybody's skin look weird, I guess, even a toddler. Nick was eating a tortilla chip when I took this picture. Check out my hyacinths--they've grown at least an inch since I bought them on Sunday. Those weren't from seed (obviously), but I love hyacinths and I figured I'd see how they did with the lights.

I believe I may have planted too much thyme in each slot. I think I might have to move some of it. But it sure sprouted well! I'm not terrific at math, so I am not sure if I planted too many seeds or not enough for a medium sized garden. I'm looking forward to spending more time outside digging.