No restraint: picking up herbs

I went down to Pemberton Farms today to pick out some herbs for my porch. This year I'd like to go for useful herbs rather than whatever catches my eye. Last year I mainly used basil (when it was freakishly contaminated), marjoram and oregano. The dill was a bit of a waste. The mint, while I love it, I didn't use too much.



In any case, this is what I ended up getting:

Oregano, Greek
Cilantro/Coriander
Rosemary, Sal's Choice
Thyme, French
Sage, purple
Marigolds (2 six packs)
Calendula (1 six pack)

For my mother, since she was a good excuse to buy things I didn't need:
Mint, Pennyroyal (n=2; for cat mat-making, not consuming)
Mint, Crisp Scotch



I also picked up that cute new planter, which is 30" by 10" with a built-in troph in the bottom for the rail on your porch to set into. No hanging off the side of the rail. It seems moderately more stable, but I'm concerned that it will (a) look tacky and (b) result in less sunlight since it sets farther into the roofed porch.

Transplanting the seedlings

The seedlings seem to have outgrown their containers and general growth has come to a standstill. As a result, I'm moving them outdoors into the little garden patch.

I hand-tilled up the soil and removed any weeds that started to bloom with the warm weather. There seems to be a lot of wood chips in there from our neighbors flower bed on the other side of the fence, but there is little I can do about it.

I removed the biodegradable wrappers from the outside of the soil packs before planting each of the flowers. I did place them relatively tight within the garden itself, mainly due to limited space. The peas have been placed in the small center section. Since they should bloom through June, I plan to pull them up and replace them with pre-grown vegetables mid-season. I've lined the front 4 inches of the garden with the three flower seedlings.



While they seemed a little dehydrated when I placed them in the ground, I heavily watered them to help them settle in with Miracle Grow enhanced water.



Just to the left of the center section, I planted three rows of golden beets, which will later be thinned. I'm a little nervous about seeding the ground directly, but I added a little seed started soil to the present soil to hopefully provide a nutritional boost to the area. I won't know for quit a bit of time, since I believe the seeds take 4-6 weeks to emerge.

New arrangement and a chili has arrived!

I swapped the position of the planter and greenhouse so that the little guys would be getting enough sunlight, and perhaps that will encourage the chilis to grow faster!





I'm seeing my very, very first chili seedling poking its head up out of the soil. Check him out! Isn't he cute?

While I watered them heavily when they were first planted, I may have overmoistened the soil, I haven't watered them once over the last two weeks. They seem to be retaining the water rather well. The downfall to this is that it appears I'm getting a light moldy growth near the roots of some and covered the tops of the peas.

Still sprouting up like weeds!

One and a half weeks in, the peas and radishes appear to be thriving. The Johnny Jump-Ups have shown the light of day now as well as the Straw Flowers.



Close-up on the flowers:

Quick start, they're already up!

It has been three days since I placed the seedlings by a heater in the living room in front of the windows. They get moderate, indirect sunlight throughout the day.

The temperature of the house stays around 65 during the day, up to 68 in the evenings. It is likely a bit warmer, around 70, where they sit due to their proximity to the heater itself.

The seedling tray is currently covered with its greenhouse plastic cover. I covered the planter containing the radish seeds lightly with plastic wrap.

Now a mere few days since planting, the Sweet Peas and Bachelors Buttons have started to poke more than their heads up! Even the radishes are making an appearence. I hadn't realized their germination period was so short. I expect that the Straw Flowers will take longer. I believe that their germination period was several weeks.



Close-up on the radish seedlings:

Seedlings Planted - Garden 2008 Begins!

Alright, so this weekend I got started on my 2008 garden!

I picked up a seed starter kit by Jiffy (72ct) and some seedling mix plus extra potting soil. If you're unfamiliar with seed starter kits, they contain these peat-packed circular coins that when you add warm water expand into a little cylinders of peat. There is a little hole in the top of the biodegradable mesh that you can open up to plant the seeds.









In my seed starter kit I planted: Peas, Hot Pepper mix, Bachelor's Buttons, Straw Flowers and Johnny Jump-Ups.




In a large planter, which I won't transplant from, I sowed radish seeds!

Finally my Romas are ripening up! I still have an abundance of cherry tomatoes as well. I'd neglected to check on the garden all weekend, so I went out Monday afternoon to find the entire thing overrun with ripe tomatoes. Some of which has fallen to ground, but were still edible or ripening.

There is still a good amount in the process of ripening, and within a couple of days I should have doubled my harvest. If anyone has some good tomato recipe ideas, let me know!

Then I cut up all of the herbs and will be drying what I have left. Only my Bloodleaf remains in the containers. I've saved what I can of the soil, and while toss in some fertilizer when its time to reuse it in the spring.





In addition to harvesting tomatoes and herbs, I cleaned up the garden. I figure that if I go plant-by-plant, it will be easier to take care of in the end when I plant the bulbs. Weeds have been few and far between luckily. I uprooted all of the diseased squash, as the baby squash had started to rot as well. The salvia is flourishing, the begonias are holding their own, and the argeritum seems to be making a come back. The celosia died off a while ago.




My brussel sprouts are getting big and should be ready to pick soon!