Sprouts

All my little brassicas are doing lovely. When I checked on them earlier in the week I noticed tiny tendrils of roots poking out the bottom of the pots. Time to up-pot already?! Okay... done! As soon as they get their first true leaves I'll be sure to give them a little food - liquid seaweed.

Broccoli, Cabbage and Cauliflower.
Lettuce on the other hand isn't doing so hot. Hum. That's never happened before. I only had two sprout. I think it's likely due to the age of the seeds though, they're pushing 4 years old. I really need to buy some more but for now I'll just plunk in a few more old seeds and see if I can't get them to go. It was also pretty wet in that tray as well. I removed the lid a few days ago to let the whole thing dry out a bit. That should help as well.

Happily I'd started a few lettuce seeds in the garden last fall (though ignored them throughly due to health so they're a bit paltry) and still, nature finds a way. They're little now but I think they'll pull though the rest of the winter and be fine in the spring so happily I'll have some garden noshes early.

My poor garden beds were, as I've mentioned, sorely neglected last summer/fall. So here's the state they're in. Ugly! I've got a bunch of old onions that weren't harvested. I'm afraid to get down there and take a closer look. I figure my big ol pregnancy belly will really be in the way soon enough then I won't have to deal with it. lol Well, maybe the leeks will be okay? The weeds look good though don't they?! Nice and healthy. Bah!
Lots of onions and a few leeks

At least the collard greens look perky.
The last thing I did (besides pull a few weeds while I was out there) was take a small root nodule with a bit of greenery on it from my chocolate peppermint plant. I've got the thing contained in a nice pot but the best mint always comes from the outside edges once it warms up and really gets busy with the growing. Ideally I'd start a new plant from cuttings every year and repot the whole thing but it's been a couple of years and last years mint harvest was awful. So! I had to be sure to get on this early. Since this bit had a bit of root I just took it and put it in a pot with starting medium and stuck it under the lights with the rest of the seed starts. Once it establishes and I can plant it outside I'll be sure to rip all the other mint out the pot and plant just this one. It'll give me a nice bright green harvestable mint plant all season long. Looking forward to a mojito or two this summer. ;^) (It's also excellent chopped up and tossed with cubed watermelon)
Chocolate peppermint "cutting".

Seedy

I'm happy to report that I got most of my seed starting area all cleaned up - woo! I even managed to get some wee seeds poked into some dirt. Life is good. I still need to tuck in some onions but I need a better container for that since they like to all hang out next to one another and not be separated into their own little compartments. Someone needs to finish off the sour cream so I can have the plastic tub. ;^)



Sadly, however I didn't manage to take any other pictures. I also finished planning out the 2012 garden and it looks like I will have to buy a few see packs but nothing I need to worry about currently.

I was thinking about planting horseradish this year. Anyone have experience with that? I heard that they help with warding off pests that bother potatoes. I thought I might try them as a companion planting this year.

I would've tried to get out and prune the fruit trees and blueberry bushes this past week but we've been getting deluged with icy-cold winter rain. I have no desire to go out there in goggles and flippers and turn blue. I'll wait a while till things dry out and warm up - even marginally before I make the attempt.

Happy Gardening!

To Do this Week in Zone 8a:
Prune apple trees
Prune blueberry bushes
Sew seeds indoors: Broccoli, Cabbage (head), Cauliflower, Kale, Lettuce (head), Onion, and Parsley.

A New Year

It's a new year and a new lease on life... once again I will try to chuck my bad lazy habits and actually post gardeny-goodess here for you! Of course right now there's not much to talk about and nary a thing to show (unless you want to see the green tips of some garlic I planted last fall or a few haggardly looking collard greens).


Yay collard greens!

I will apologize for dropping off last summer but we accidentally planted a seed of a different type 'round here. I'm expecting a baby boy in mid April! I also wound up having the most debilitating morning sickness to the point of pretty much being bed ridden for four months right at the end of the growing season and never even harvested half my crops. It was a real shame. Happily, that's all water under the bridge now.


The witch hazel is always so pretty in January.

This afternoon it's trying to snow and I've pulled out my garden binder and have started contemplating where I shall plant what, when the time comes. It's nearly time to start seeds (next week!) so this needs to be done.


A rough draft.

I'm making a list of what seeds need to be purchased and while I'm dreading it (because it's a complete mess) I need to also clean up the seed starting area in my house this week too. Of course some of this is complicated by my big belly. 0.o I'm still wondering how I'm going to actually get things planted outside with a big ol' baby bump in the way but I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it. Perhaps I can coerce my sister into helping?


See? Here I am being brave and just showing you *some* of the disaster that is my seed starting area. I still need to wash all the trays and lids which are stacked rather precariously by the utility sink and go through all the messy pile of seed packs I left out last fall. Shame on me! (Not the best seed storage method - lol!) I also need to dump out the old batches of fert I made up last year and look into the bottles of "magic plant potions" that I have laying around to see what needs to be replaced or replenished.

To Do this Week in Zone 8a:
Prune apple trees
Prune blueberry bushes