Garden, Interrupted

Well, today I dismantled my container garden and brought it all over to my parents' house; from there, it'll go to several new homes among my family. We moved to a great new place, the only downside being complete lack of access to space for containers. So for now, I'm sending my lush little plants out into the cruel, cruel world.

Actually, I'm sure they'll get lots of love. Maybe they'll thrive better than when I had them!

Just an update on the state of things:

- The sugar snaps are just about done, yielding a total of about 10 pods. *sigh* I found evidence of something digging, despite the pot being up on the porch near our door. I guess sugar snap peas are just that irresistible.
- The purple beans look outstanding! I have two crops going, and the older one's got lovely little purple flowers all over. They've both gotten big and bushy and look really healthy.
- The spring onions, not so much. I'll be suprised if they continue to survive long enough to mature. Maybe they don't like being in the container. (Also, our neighbors killed off one container.)
- Yellow grape tomato is looking a little leggy, but has sent up a second main plant. I saw two little flowers on it today. Huzzah!
- Roma tomato looks much less leggy. I have high hopes.
- The greens seem to be...inconsistent. I'm curious to see how those will turn out.
- The radishes never happened. They all started flowering, and I never got an actual radish root. It may be that I didn't use a deep enough container, as they're tap root veggies.
- The carrots were mostly overwhelmed by the too-big radish greens, but a few survived. The carrots that were not planted with radishes are doing well.

I'm hoping to get some pictures of at least the beans when I visit them next. I would definitely grow Romano Purpiat again, so long as the yield is good. I've never had a happier plant in the garden.

May Flowers

There are delicate white blossoms popping up all over my sugar snap pea plants. I cannot tell you how excited I was to glance sleepily out my kitchen window Friday morning and realize what I was looking at.

Really, everything's going pretty well out there. And what I love best about today is this: I rubbed my hand over the tomato plants to encourage leaf growth, and I can still smell the dark earthiness of tomatoes on my hands.

(Also pictured: Violet pac choi growing with wild kale, radishes and teeny tiny frilly carrot greens, and the Romano purpiat string(less) beans, which are growing like gangbusters.)

Punk'd

I got very excited yesterday at the prospect of digging up a couple of radishes to go with last night's dinner. Pulled up the biggest bunch of greens in the container, only to discover - no radish! The greens are there, and looking healthy, but the radish hasn't fluffed out yet.

I looked around to be sure no one was looking, and tucked it back into the dirt. :P

Stopped by the local garden center yesterday to pick up a few things. I'll get herbs later, maybe at the plant sale in our city next weekend. For now, I wanted to get a couple of tomato plants and a pepper into the garden, since those need plenty of time to grow.

Our selections: Sun Sugar, an indeterminate yellow/orange grape tomato that promises to be sweet and prolific.

Golden Bell yellow bell pepper.

And a plain ol' Roma tomato. The center didn't have San Marzano, sadly. They did have a few heirloom varieties, but they already looked leggy.

Those have all been planted, so the count is on.

I took a peek at everything else while I was outside. The radishes are racing toward maturity, and I think the carrots aren't far behind. The spring onions still look small...I wonder if they need more light than they're getting. The beans seem to be doing well, and I planted another batch today. The greens seem to be doing well. The beets are teeny! Potentially not enough sun there, either, but they're in a cracked pot that I'm not moving.

Hmm. Those radishes are supposed to mature in 28 days. It should be any day now.

Sugar Snap

These babies are about a foot tall now, which should be about it for them. Now they ought to make with the peas!!

Inventory

Snap peas: Gorgeous!

Radishes: thinned!

Carrots: Sprouting!

Beans: Sprouting!

Spring onions: Sprouting!

Beets: Sprouting! Or not actually beets!

Indoor seedlings: Need to be replaced! Whoops.

Garden Check

- The snap peas look gorgeous. They should start producing soon, I think.

- Lots of radishes have come up. I need to thin this weekend.

- Also, a good number of greens.

- My neighbors, who I'm starting to think of as the Destroyer of Worlds, may or may not have killed several other containers last weekend.

- I will need to get some nursery seedlings. Mine are just not going to make it.

- If all goes well, our next house already has a raised bed garden.

NYT Article on Urban Garderning

Pretty interesting!

(PS: Forgot to mention, I got to pet Charlie, a 3 month old pig who lives at the farm we buy our meat from. Charlie was very cute, and very big, and I am sure he will make a lovely slab of bacon someday.)

The News From Here is Mostly Disappointing. Mostly.

- I gave up my Community Farm plot. We are in the midst of finding a new home, and then we will be in the midst of moving. There just isn't time. Plus, we could potentially end up living an hour from the plot.

- My seedlings have remained pathetic. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm going to have to buy some bigger ones at the nursery. There is no space in our house for a grow light, but I'm getting one next year, that's for darned sure.

- Critters. Digging in my outside containers. I'm going to try cayenne pepper and see if that works to discourage them. The containers need some attention this week, as they're covered in a blanket of neon green maple tree buds.

Here's the good news, though: PEAS! Beautiful, gorgeous 7" tall sugar snap peas. Keeping them on my porch seems to have dissuaded the marauding squirrels. (You'd probably be dissuaded too, if you say our neighbors' great dane using the porch.) They apparently like the warmth, and the rain, and the little hit of slightly soured milk I gave them instead of dumping it down the drain. I'm hoping they'll actually bear fruit soon. I can hardly stand the wait.

There is a critter digging in my containers. Die critter, die!

I am normally not prone to violence against wildlife, but the stupid squirrels ate my peas and some carrots, too, last year. I made the right call in putting the peas up on the porch rail. Little pests are much less likely to come that close to the house.

In less cranky news, we've gotten lots of rain yesterday and today, so hopefully I'll see some green in those containers soon. You know, if the squirrels don't get to them first.

Let's Get This Garden Started

I was out this morning, finally planting outdoors. Our containers were never brought in last year, so I had a bit of work to do with them. Only 1 immediate casualty, a small terra cotta pot that fell apart during winter's extreme temperature changes. A larger terra cotta container is also showing signs of stress, so I probably won't use it for a whole lot this year.

Everything that I'd ordered has now been planted. The outdoor containers are now home to carrots, beets, radishes, bush beans, kale, chard, and a whole lot of green onions. Indoors, I think the seedlings are taking a bit longer than they ought, but there are still six weeks before they go in the ground. I unfortunately lost one or two by leaving the cover of the seed started on too long...it wilted the seed leaves, and the seedlings didn't last long after that. But that's why you plant multiples!

My peas are doing beautifully. There's a patch of 3 or 4 that never came up, but the rest have really taken off. I think next weekend I'm going to start a second batch to see if I can't get some later ones. I don't think it'll work, but it can't hurt to try. The rest of the seeds will be saved for a late season planting.

Next weekend will also be for more pictures.

Our house has gone under agreement, so we're hoping to be moving soon. Mid-season of course, but I planned for that possibility. I'm so clever.

I'm off the waiting list - there's a half plot with my name on it in the community garden nearby. So all my seedlings will have homes, even if it's not in my own backyard.

The proof is, in fact, in the pudding

Seedlings, Day 3.


Seedlings, Day 5.


More Day 5.

I wrote down what everything was, but now I'm a bit suspicious that I've made a mistake somewhere. If not, we're looking at Cayenne pepper, both tomato varieties (San Marzano and Principe Borghese), eggplant, and some oregano. There are a few others just starting to break through to the surface.

Who ever would have thought tiny green things held so much excitement?

Finally

I started seeds yesterday!

In my mini greenhouse from Territorial Seed, I planted seeds for anything that wants to be started indoors. Cayenne peppers, mini bell peppers, two varieties of tomato, two varieties of basil, chives, eggplant, and oregano. I also did a couple of experiments to see what the difference really is between indoor-started and direct sown with kale, pac choi, and green onions. With the greens, I figure at the very least I can use the snippets as micro greens. The onions should grow fine, there was just a note on the packet that said direct sown seeds would be "more uniform." Whatever that means. Anyway, who can't use more baby onions? Also started a couple of sunflowers. They came free with my seed order, so why the heck not? My garden could certainly use a little color.

I used up the rest of my first bag of potting soil by starting my sugar snap peas outside. I can't wait for those babies to mature. I tried growing them last year too, but it was like they were suicidal. First, they swelled up in a rainstorm and floated out of the dirt and got eaten by wild critters. Then when I pushed them back down, they sprouted and got eaten by wild critters. This time around I tried to be smarter, and put them on the railing right outside my door. Hopefully this will discourage wild critters.

Next weekend I will start the other outdoor starters. Going to need more potting soil before then!

I definitely have too many seedlings for the garden right now....I planted 50 peat pots. I should hear early next month if I'm going to get a plot in the community garden nearby, so I'll have some things to start there. If not, I'll send some extras to my grandparents and parents and in-laws in small containers. They all enjoy the vegetables I bring them, so this would mean no waiting!

I feel very clever about using water leftover from hard boiling eggs to water the seeds. Conservationist, that's me!

Now they sit for a day undisturbed before I try watering them again.

I would also like to point out that Sinfest has started its gardening for the season, too.

Hopefully, we'll see some green popping out from the soil too, so there'll be pictures again.

What early spring looks like

Got my seeds! Spread 'em all out nice and fancy to take pictures!



That's about as far as I got.


We are STILL mired in The Big Move, so this weekend was spent getting the house decluttered so our realtor could come snap pictures of our humble abode.



Next weekend, though. I promise.



At least, I hope. But heck, I didn't start last year until July, so I'm still ahead of the game, right? Right??

Tonight, we dance

Or more aptly...this weekend, we garden.

I spoke to my gardening consultant (aka "Dad") yesterday, who informed me that I can start my seeds "last week." This weekend, then, will be a project. I really need to get my pots indoors and scrubbed, I need to get my potting soil topped up, and I need to start planting! My planting chart will be consulted, but right now, I'm thinking....peas outdoors, lettuce and greens outdoors, tomatoes indoors, eggplant indoors, hot peppers indoors. Actually, I can probably get my carrots and radishes sown outside as well now that I think about it. The weather's been warm enough that I could probably take care of those and the peas tonight after work.

I also got on the waiting list for a Community Garden just a few minutes away from our current home. I won't hear until April whether I get a plot, so I can't do much planning ahead as far as starting more varieties. But since I'll start multiple seedlings of the same plants, the excess could go into the community spot. And I can always pick up plants next month.

So yes. This week will officially kick off my gardening season, after a long long winter.

I held a lamb!

Last year, I made a conscious decision to start getting more of our food from local sources. I considered a vegetable CSA share, but to be honest, I really didn't want to be all tied up in one farm when there are a whole variety of Massachusetts producers to explore. I did, however, seek out a farm that sells meat shares - enter Chestnut Farms and farmers Kim and Rich. We started off with a 10lb share, split with my parents, and when our 6 months was up, we increased to a 25lb share. Kim does drop-offs once a month around the MetroWest, which makes this a pretty convenient thing to do. (I will not lie or pretend that it isn't challenging to have someone else selecting a month's worth of meat for me, but I plan our meals two weeks at a time, and that has worked very well.)

This month's pick up was yesterday, and Kim brought her daughter Marlisa as well as a brand new wee baby lamb! I wish I'd brought a camera. The tiny little thing was just born on Friday, and I could feel his heart beating next to my hand. Truly amazing. If I thought I could convince my husband that this was a peculiar-looking, long legged cat, I may have smuggled the baby home in my coat. The whole thing was just so darned cool, and this is not the sort of thing one can do when one buys meat from commercial feedlots.

This summer, I'm still going to stick to farmer's markets and my own garden for produce, but I'm going to make a bigger effort to build relationships with local farms. I really think it's the way to go, even if it takes a little more time than this modern world expects. More thoughts on that later.

I think....I think I got a whiff of spring breeze on my commute to work this morning. I could have been hallucinating.

In any event, I'd like this move to be OVER NOW, so I can get on with the planting. The sugar snap peas, they're calling my name! In a language that only I (and centimeter long, gray-green shrivel-ly seeds) can hear. "Plllaaaaaannnnnnttt ussss! PllllAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnnnnttt usssss!!!!"

It's actually a little creepy when I think about it.

The seeds of spring

My package from Territorial Seeds arrived last week. I've been in packing HELL, so no chance to peek at the goodies just yet. However, I noted with a certain amount of glee that I could potentially plant my snap peas this week. THE GARDEN, SHE AWAKENS!!!

Ahem.

Romance, Garden-Style

Just the other day, I was reading Gayla Trail's blog entry about Valentine's Day gifts for gardeners, and thinking how sweet an idea it is to give such a gift. Practical (usually) and keyed toward a hobby that grows plants, which are the traditional Valentine's gift.

I asked my husband not to get me a gift, since we've got the Whole Big Move Thing going on, but last night "the cats" presented me with a card, and this handy tool, a Leatherman Pruners Hybrid. Before this, I didn't actually have garden snips, and had been thinking about that lack a whole lot. It's not something I ever, ever mentioned though, so it makes me love "the cats" even more to know "they" were thinking that much about what I like, and what I need, and what I struggle with buying for myself.

The days grow not quite long enough

O, how I long for spring.

I have, as yet, been unable to retrieve my gardening containers from the outdoors. Since November, they've either been covered in snow or soaking wet. Or covered in snow AND soaking wet. Most of them are heavy duty plastic, so it shouldn't hurt them to be out there, but to be honest, they're a bit of an eyesore.

To pass the time, I've been considering how and where to set up my seedlings. I think we have only one room with enough sunshine for the task, and it's currently my husband's office. We're going to need to swap offices for a while. I could just make room enough for a small table, but...the cats. Husband likes having the cats in the room when he's working. The cats like to eat plants. You see where I'm going with this.

The blueberry plant order is on hold. My gardening consultant (also known as "Dad,") pointed out that most blueberries don't produce in Year 1. I called Spring Hill to confirm this. I'm sure the lady at the other end wanted to help me. But her answer was "I don't see that information here. I got one a few years ago, and I think it produced the first year. But they may not be selling the same thing now. So you may get them the first year. You may not." Yes, I feel so much more informed now than I did 4 minutes ago.

I know I could just get the foolish thing now and have blueberries next year if not this year, but there's that whole "We're moving, and we need the space to be less cluttered so lots of people will want to buy our house" issue. Plus, one of the main motivators to get the stupid thing was a sale that has now expired, so. Meh.

I've ordered my first seeds!

I put an order in this week with Territorial Seed Company. Last year, I got several seed packets from them, and everything sprouted well. (Sadly, most didn't make it to maturity for one reason or another that had nothing to do with their seeds.) The hardest part was deciding what to get, as I don't want to use any more containers than last year. We hope to move mid growing season, so this all needs to stay fairly portable.

Here's what I got:

Basil - Aroma and Cinnamon. I should have the space for both, and basil did really well in the containers last year. I could have gotten away with just Aroma, but I'm curious about Cinnamon.

Squash - Cavili. I was very, very tempted by Eight Ball because c'mon, how cute is that? But Cavili is self-pollinating, and I had some pollination issues last year. Bees must not like the city.

Tomatoes - This was perhaps the hardest decision I've made so far this year. I originally had eight varieties of tomato seeds in my shopping cart, which I painfully (so painfully) whittled down to two: Super San Marzano for sauce, and Principe Borghese for eating and drying. I had one Principe Borghese last year that I bought as a plant from a local nursery, and I was really impressed with the output and flavor.

That may not be enough tomatoes, but if I'm really craving more variety, I'm sure I'll have no issues picking up another plant or two in the spring.

Peppers - Miniature Chocolate Bells and Cayenne. We mostly use bell peppers around here, and I was distracted by the chocolate color. I'd also like to dry more hot peppers this year, hence the Cayenne. I had good success with drying last year.

Root veggies - Kestrel baby beet, and Guardsman scallion. I should be able to drop both around the perimeters of my bigger containers. I am tempted by garlic and true onions, but I can order those later, after I see what sort of place we'll be living in next winter. I have Thumbelina carrot seeds and Easter Egg II radish seeds already, leftover from last year.

Greens - Violetta pac choi and Wild Garden Kale, a seed mix. I'd originally planned to get lettuce too, but the truth is that we don't really eat a lot of salads. I also have some leftover Golden Swiss Chard seeds that won't go to waste.

Beans and peas - I was ever so tempted by Etna beans for drying, because look how gorgeous they are. I'll save that experiment for next year, though, with such limited space this spring. My entire bean crop will be Romano Purpiat. The yellow Romano also looks lovely, but I decided to stay monochromatic this year. For peas, I elected to stick with Sugar Star. I grew them last year, and they were apparently very tasty, because some critter ate them all before they matured! This year's batch will be much better protected.

Eggplant - Twinkle, which may be the cutest, prettiest eggplant ever. I had great luck growing eggplant -plants- last year, but it was too late in the season and they never bore fruit. I'm hoping this year will see a more bountiful eggplant harvest.

That's it for seeds. A bit later in the season, I'm going order some herbs - Territorial ships these as a plant, not seeds. I need some Rosemary, Oregano, and Sage, at the very least. I am also planning to order a couple of blueberry plants, specifially Top Hat from Spring Hill Nurseries. I'll be honest, I'm really drooling over the idea of a citrus tree or more fruits (Figs!), but I'm trying to be spare, here.

I'm a bad blogger, but a worse gardener

We've had some snow in New England. A lot of snow. It turns out, we set a record for most snowfall in a December this year.

Why do I mention this?

Because my gardening pots are still outside. Buried in snow. I waited too long to clean them up and get them in the house, so now they're in frosty limbo. I'm hoping with one more decent thaw I'll be able to retrieve them.

In the meantime, my brother in law and his wife were kind enough to send me a small kit for an indoor Italian Herb Garden, which I got started a couple of days ago. I eagerly anticipate tiny green plants unfurling in the next week or two. And having fresh basil to last me through winter, because O, How I Crave It.

In other happy news, seed catalogues have started arriving! I think my entire haul will come from Territorial Seed Company this year. I really want to expand into interesting stuff like corn and brussels sprouts, but I'm holding myself back for a couple of reasons. First, we're trying to be nice neighbors and the husband has asked specifically that I not overrun the backyard of our 4-family with more plants. Second, we are planning a move sometime this year, and the earlier the better. So I don't want to go crazy with enormous plants that I then need to figure a way to transport to their new home.

I have a list put together. I've had to pare it down twice, because there is clearly no reason to spend $200 on seeds in the small space I've allotted for gardening. Next year, I can expand. This year will be enough of an experiment, since everything's going in from seed. Last season was all seedlings and mature plants.

The last time I grew herbs from seed, I potted 50 peat pots. One plant made it to maturity. Let's hope this goes a bit better than that year.