Community Garden Update
I got an email this week from the community garden people. I got half a plot! Although it’s only 4′x8′, it’ll give me a lot more planting space than I would have had otherwise. I have to go down next Saturday to fill out the paperwork and pay (only $5!) and help clean up the garden. I’m pretty excited about it. Today I have plans to drive by and see the garden – I know where it is, but I haven’t actually had a look at it yet. I think the best part of this garden for me is that it’s so close to home – literally 5 minutes away, which will make it easy to go by regularly and take care of things. I’m so excited!
In my next post I’ll share my seeedling set up. I have a bunch of little guys going – probably too many, but at least I’ll have lots to plant when the time comes.
Weeding and Morning Glories
Before weeding
I was able to get out early (or at least early for me at 10 am) to get some weeding done. The tulips that feebly tried to bloom this year just grew leaves, no actual flowers so they came up along with some weeds and grass that was growing in the flower bed.
After weeding
I had to be careful to only take up the tulip bulbs cause there are other bulbs in the same bed that were planted a couple weeks ago. It wasn’t too tough to tell the difference though cause the tulip ones were mostly soggy and squishy – I understand now why they never put out flowers – they weren’t in good shape.
Morning Glory seedling
Yesterday I was able to plant my Morning Glories (Convolvulus major) in a container. They’re under a trellis so they’ll be able to climb up it. The seeds were planted April 5 in peat pots because I was told Morning Glories don’t like to be transplanted. I’m not exactly sure what colors they’re going to be, but the seed package had purple and pink flowers on it.
I have 8 or 10 seedlings in the container, I hope that’s not too many. Some of them don’t look so great because I was out of town for the weekend and no one watered any of the plants for me. I guess I should have made sure someone would do it for me.
On the other side of the trellis are Hollyhocks Chaters double. We’ve always had the hollyhocks in that spot and until this year they’ve always self-seeded. I think there was too much dead stuff under there though and the seeds weren’t able to reach the soil. So we dug it all up a couple weeks ago and I planted the Chaters double last week. They should take 15 ro 25 days to germinate.
Zinnia Seeds
I also planted some Zinnia seeds this morning. I wasn’t sure about the quality of the soil in this container so I dumped it out into a big bucket to see what it was like. It looked good so I put it back in and was amazed to see that it took almost 1/4 less soil to fill it back up. It must have been really compacted in there. I’m glad I decided to empty it and refill it otherwise I think the tiny roots would have had a hard time trying to grow. The seeds should germinate in 5 to 8 days.
Well, I’m off to the garden center this afternoon to get some dirt and more flowers (not that I really need them……).
Peas
My peas are finally starting to come up! I was out of town for the weekend and when I went out to check the garden yesterday morning I saw them poking up. I’m actually surprised at how many germinated. We’ve had almost constant rain for the last week or so and I was worried that it was going to be too much water.
As for the mysterious germinating pea, it wasn’t actually a pea. It was something else that came up in between two peas. It has yet to be identified.
These pansies were planted last spring and somehow survived the winter and came up again a couple weeks ago. I think they’re so pretty. Are they supposed to survive the winter? I didn’t do anything special to protect them during the winter.
The Mysterious Germinating Peas
I planted the peas on Saturday morning. Yesterday I went out in the garden to see if the crocuses had bloomed yet and I noticed that there was a tiny seedling where I had planted the peas!
Is it possible for peas to germinate in 24 hours, even if it’s just one? I looked online and it said that peas germinate in 7 to 14 days. I moved around a lot of the surrounding dirt when I was planting the peas, so I doubt that it was there before I planted them, or else I would have killed it. I guess I’ll have to wait til it gets bigger to have a look at it ans find out if it is a pea.
Does anyone have any ideas about the mysterious seedling?
Seed Sprouting and Snow
Both of my Cosmos and Morning Glories have sprouted! I’ll take a picture of them once they’re a little bigger.
Although it feels like spring inside with plants sprouting, it definitely feels like winter outside. It snowed this morning and for a bit this afternoon. The drive to work this morning was chaos. Hopefully the sun will melt most of the snow tomorrow.
Recycling and Green Gardening
Having just started gardening this year I don\t have a lot of equipment. I don’t have grow lights or a ton of pots or shovels.
This posed a bit of a problem for indoor sowing. What do I put the seeds in? I decided that instead of buying a ton of peat pots that I’d only be able to use for one growing season I would recycle containers as much as I could. So I’ve been using milk cartons that have been washed out, cleaned, and cut in half to plant my seedlings. I also have a friend saving hers for me. I’ve also been using plastic food containers, like apple sauce and Jello for sowing seeds in and bigger ones like margarine containers to but bigger seedlings in. I’ve also been using plastic beer cups to put bigger plants in. Although they were new when I first used them, i plan on using them year after year.
I’ve also been reusing the cardboard trays that water bottles come in. I cover them in garbage bags so that they\re waterproof (I can cover 4 or 5 trays from one large garbage bag if I cut them out properly) and I can put all the containers with plants in them. If I had to carry the pots around individually it would take forever.
What recycling tips do you have for your garden?
Peppers
Two of my peppers have sprouted! I had to share the good news. I’m so excited about them, can you tell?
I”ll post a picture in a few days when they’re a bit bigger.
