Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 8

Tags

food, garden, gardening, kitchen garden, potager, radishes, raised beds, sunchokes, sustainable living, vegetable garden

This week has been busy in our garden, both our potager and landscaping. I think the muscles in my back are proving that we overdid it… (Hubster said that I’m not allowed to have any sore muscles or back pain while I’m in my 20’s….)

Indoors: I sowed more seeds; lettuces, cabbage, and even some indoor radishes (I want to see how they perform indoors and might try to grow some year round…). I started more romaine and celery from kitchen scraps, and removed he potatoes from my kitchen windows sill to make room…

Outdoors:Hubster built me four new raised beds, one 1’x2′ for my Jerusalem artichokes (aka: sunchokes) and three 1.5’x1.5′ for my sweet potatoes, potatoes and blue potatoes.

Small Raised Beds

In the largest raised bed I planted some cauliflower and celery starters I purchased from the local garden store. We had a few nights when temperatures dropped and frost hit, but I was prepared. I used glass bowls and vases as mini greenhouses to protect my tender plants.

Cauliflower & Celery

Mini Green Houses

This week’s weather look fantastic again (tomorrow is supposed to reach 88°F!!!), so I’m hoping my back feels better soon. I want to get a lot of outdoor work done…

Week 7: More Peas, Carrots, Radishes
Week 6: I took a break!!!!
Week 5: More Tomatoes, Peppers & Lettuce
Week 4: Carrots, Radishes, Peas & Sugar Snap Peas

Ravenous for Radishes

Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

What progress is your garden making?

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Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 5

Tags

food, gardening, kitchen garden, potager, salad garden, sustainable living, vegetable garden

This weekend was chilly and rainy, I didn’t get any more seeds sowed outside in the raised beds.  The forecast looks bleak this coming week, and or taste of warmer weather my be over.

In my windowsill, the celery is showing roots at the bottom and Pumpkin attacked the scallions which had completed regenerated in only 3 weeks. We started to root the ends of romaine lettuce in my crème brûlée dishes, and we can’t wait to see how they grow.

I decided to sow some seeds indoors, I started another 2 rows of each variety of tomatoes and pepper that I did one week one. I also sowed a mix of lettuce and am waiting to see how that turns out.

Week 4: Carrots, Radishes, Peas & Sugar Snap Peas
Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 4

Tags

crops, gardening, kitchen garden, potager, sustainable living

Please forgive me, I’m a day late with this post, but it has been simply gorgeous outside and I haven’t been near the computer much. First using a layer of newspaper at the bottom as a weed barrier (hopefully, I made it thick enough) and then mixing top soil and mushroom soil we got from a local farmer, Hubster and I filled our raised beds. For $20, our 8’x4′ and one 4’x4′ are filled.

I checked out Smart Gardener and starting playing around with some of the layout. Compared with the info from Sprout Robot, I was ready to start sowing seeds outdoors. Afterall, they don’t really know that our plants are three weeks early this year.

Smart Gardener

This week I direct sowed Burpee’s Super Sugar Snap Peas, Easy Peasy Peas, Perfecto Radishes and Kaleidoscope Mix Carrots. After I placed the seeds, Belle decided to throw her frisbee and drag it across the top of the radishes and carrots. Ugh! We’ll see how many of them got tossed about. I plan on planting these in succession (weekly) across the furthest 4’x4′ bed each week.

Week 3: Raised Beds
Week 2: Celery & Scallions
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 3

Tags

gardening, kitchen garden, potager, raised beds

This weekend was all about getting my raised beds built! Saturday morning, Hubster drove to the sawmill to purchase raw lumber for my raised beds. Today the weather was glorious! This morning while I was working on my urn planters, Hubster & Pumpkin were busy cutting and building my boxes. We decided to start with two 4′ x 4′ boxes and one 4′ x 8′ box. The location of them is a bit awkward, because our property is so hilly and we get the best sun in the front. Once we establish that this layout works, we’ll incorporate a few more beds and fruit trees.

Raised Beds

After a few cloudy days, my tomatoes showed specks of mold in a few spots of the soil! Oh no! I quickly removed the dome lid to give them more air and brewed a cup of strong chamomile tea. Once the tea cooled, I gave the soil a good spritz and again the next day. The mold was gone and it was sunny again, so the soil was able to dry up some. Let’s hope I side-stepped this obstacle.  The celery is starting to show new growth, the potatoes are steady, the pepper plants are finally popping through the soil and the scallions have 4″ of growth in only one week!

Seven Days Growth

My potager is coming together, Thanks Hubster & Pumpkin! Now, if only I could have some steps build into the hill…

Week 2: Scallions (some people call green onions) & celery
Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potato & Potato Vines

How does your garden grow?

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Week 2

Tags

celery, frugal gardening, gardening, green onions, kitchen garden, scallions, seedlings, seeds, sustainable living

It’s all over Pinterest: every blog telling you how easy it is to start celery and green onions from their ends. And it is easy. This was another “experiment” we used to do as kids. No matter whose directions you follow, please, please, please remember to use only organic celery. This veggie is at the top of the dirty dozen.

This weekend we started celery in a small plant saucer, since it was a bit deeper than the saucers in our dish set. We also started the scallions (or some people call green onions) in a jar. Look at the roots!

Organic Celery and Scallions Started

Also in our window sill garden: Pumpkin is still amazed by the fact that the sweet potato is all roots and only has two small dots are emerging from the top, while the potato is all plant and no roots.

Friday night we sprayed the seeds we planted last week. On Saturday Pumpkin noticed the tomato seedlings popping up from the soil. He was amazed that a plant could grow two inches over night. We’re patiently waiting for the peppers to emerge.

The Tomatoes Emerge

Another highlight of weekend garden preparation is purchasing a stainless steel compost pail (with charcoal filter, so no odors escape) for my kitchen. No sense running out to the compost bins each time I have a handful! Now the waste is hidden in a sleek container I keep next to the sink, so Hubster doesn’t accidentally throw the egg shells down the garbage disposal.

Week 1: Tomatoes, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Potatoes

Did you start any new seeds/plants this week? What other preparations did you make for your garden?

Sunday Seeds & Sprouts 2012: Started

Tags

gardening, kitchen garden, potager, produce, starting seeds, sustainable living

These photos aren’t going to be beautiful. The beauty comes from the idea of picking and eating my own fresh fruits and vegetables this summer. Did you ever sink your teeth into a sun-ripened tomato, juice dripping down your chin? Or pop sugar snap peas straight from the vine into your mouth? Or tearing off a mint leaf and chewing it before you get it into your tea? Each bite more rich in color and flavor than anything you can get at the supermarket, even better than the farmer’s market. That’s the beauty in this post.

In my kitchen window sill I am starting sweet potato and red potato vines. The sweet potato is developing roots, while the red potato is developing plant shoots. We used to do this each year when we were kids. After all, kids are more likely to eat veggies that they helped to grow.

Sweet Potato & Red Potato

Using disposable cake pans with dome lids, eggs cartons (and some leftover peat pots), and seed starting soil, I crafted mini greenhouses to help germinate my seeds. This week I started two varieties of tomatoes and two of bell peppers.

Mini Greenhouse #1: Tomatoes & Peppers

In Jan. I ordered our seeds from Burpee and used Sprout Robot to help create a personalized planting calendar. About a month ago, we started a small-scale compost. Now Hubster just needs to get some rough cut lumber and build raised beds.

Dear Gardener, what’s your seed starting tip?
Dear Foodies, what’s your favorite fresh veggie or fruit to eat and/or cook?