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I’m finally starting to feel a bit better, I had the influenza and then a kidney stone – both of which left me miserable.  But while I was out of commission, my little plants grew and grew! My cabbage and kale (the first things planted) especially grew.  As I mentioned in a past blog post, they grew quite tall and lanky. They were starting to show their roots on the outside of the coir pellets too – so it was time to replate them! I gathered all my supplies.  I decided to pot them up a bit into recycled paper pots and to give themRead More →

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This is my comment in response to Dee Nash’s post Which flowers are easy to grow from seed? Here are several I like it ended up being long so I decided to make a post of my own, I want to go find pictures, but I’m sick, so pictures might come later.. My favorite easy-to-grow flowers are Cosmos and Bachelor Buttons.  Cosmos grow all over my mom’s garden – I had some of my senior pictures taken in the garden with the cosmos.  She has the ones that are primarily pink but occasionally throw purple or white (incomplete dominance at work).  We didn’t get CosmosRead More →

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I have two parsley plants from last year, which I bought from a nursery.  Parsley is a biennial, which means that they grow for two years before going to seed.  I’d like mine to go to seed so I can save some and try to start my own next year (this year, I’m growing it from purchased seed, but it is flat leaf).  Unfortunately, over the winter, the parsley got a little leggy, yellowed, and generally not so healthy looking.  Part of the problem was that it wasn’t getting enough light, I believe, and also, it was in mom’s watering territory, and we already knowRead More →

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I’ve mentioned on twitter multiple times about a great book that I bought and have been reading.  No, not reading, studying.  Because it is far more than a book you just read, it is a book that you read, study, absorb, learn, and re-read. The book is called The 20-30 Something Garden Guide: A No-Fuss, Down and Dirty, Gardening 101 for Anyone Who Wants to Grow Stuff and it is written by Dee Nash (@reddirtramblin on Twitter). I come from a somewhat strange place when it comes to gardening – I know quite a bit more than the beginning gardener, but I don’t know anythingRead More →

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I had an idea for a new type of post for me to post every week or so.  I’m going to call them “troubleshooting” and it will be a problem – either that I’m having or something that someone else has submitted.  Then my readers or followers on Twitter can give suggestions or recommendations for solving the problem and I will update the post with the answers. My first post is actually a problem my mom is having.  She got this cute little basket with mums for her birthday a few weeks ago (the only picture I have of it healthy are the ones IRead More →

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Well, the weather outside might not agree, but spring is coming and it is time to plant seeds so I can have happy, healthy seedlings to put out.  My goal is to grow a majority, if not all, of my plants from seeds this year, rather than buying plants, so I’ve been carefully studying charts and weather/climate ratings for my area to find the best time to plant.  I’ve also been using Smart Gardener to get a basic garden layout so I have an idea of how many seeds to plant so I don’t have extra or I’m not short.  Though I’m using Smart GardenerRead More →

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I mentioned before that I planted two pellets with parsley nearly three weeks ago.  Parsley has a germination period of 7 to 14 days, and the first pellet came up after 13 days, showing two little seedlings. The other didn’t come up within the germination period.  I decided to give it a little more time because I’ve heard that parsley can be especially difficult to germinate.  After more than three weeks of nothing growing, I finally gave up and when I was starting other seeds, I put some new parsley seeds into the pellet. The very next day, I was checking the water level andRead More →

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This awesome book I have been reading, The 20-30 Something Garden Guide; A no-fuss, down and dirty Gardening 101 for anyone who wants to grow stuff has a brilliant suggestion to grow a “salad bowl” with lettuce in a container.  When I was at the feed store looking at seeds, I noticed a similar bowl in the clearance section and just had to get it and make my own salad bowl. Because I’m keeping my bowl inside so I can have early lettuce, I didn’t remove the plugs from the drain holes, but instead used packing peanuts to allow good drainage for the soil.  PackingRead More →

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My cabbage (below) and kale (above) are getting tall, and as I mentioned previously, they are outgrowing the clear plastic lid of the greenhouse.  I had hoped that the 25 plant greenhouse from Burpee would be here before I needed to move them, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen.  So I stopped at the feed store and bought a second small greenhouse, identical to the first one.  I moved the kale and cabbage into this new greenhouse (now known as the “Growing Greenhouse”) and left the mystery flowers and the parsley in the original greenhouse (now known as the “Sprouting Greenhouse”).  ThisRead More →

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I was going by memory on what the white flowers were from last year, but when I was cleaning I found the package from last year, and they are labeled as “Paperwhites, Narcissus.” Narcissus actually includes daffodils and jonquils.  But because these are “Paperwhites,” it means they are Narcissus papyraceus. Unlike other Narcissus species, Paperwhites do not require chilling to promote bloom.  This is nice since I’m not sure they got cold enough in our basement last winter to force a bloom or not. Last time I posted, I was worried about if I had done the right thing with the little mini bulbs attachedRead More →