Drink What You Grow
2014-02-25
Tonight was Garden Chat night, and the topic was “Garden to Glass” which was a lot of fun. The discussion was about things you can grow in your garden to make tasty drinks. Of course, I don’t drink alcohol due to the medications I’m on, but I can enjoy mocktails, flavored waters, and most of all, tea! I’ve been purchasing my tea, but this chat started me thinking, what if I tried growing my own herbal tea? I’ve already planned to try to grow Chamomile this year, but I wonder what else I can add to it to make different teas? My favorite tea rightRead More →
Pepper Experiment
2014-02-23
Last year at the end of the year, I bought a pepper plant that had some blooms on clearance. My thought was that I could put it inside and have some peppers over the winter. Well, I never did replant the pepper plant into a bigger pot, so all I ended up with is a spindly pepper plant. The top looks good and there is new growth coming in at the bottom, but there is a good six inch space that has no leaves, it is just stem. I did some reading and found that spindly pepper plants was a result of overcrowding – whichRead More →
Soil Structure
2014-02-21
Today, I joined in on the groundchat, where we talked about Urban Soil. The topic was interesting, but I learned so much more. The first thing I learned is that there is such a thing as a “soil scientist” – someone who studies soil. I had assumed previously that this fell under geology, but they have their own profession. The host of groundchat, Cristina shared a blog post about Urban Soil which led me to looking at some other posts on the blog, including this post about soil structure. I’m still doing lots of research about soil, I never knew that there was so muchRead More →
Herb Chat
2014-02-20
I’ve been learning so much from other gardeners on Twitter and one of the people I follow mentioned that there was a #herbchat today. I joined in, finding it easiest to follow on Nurph and learned quite a bit about growing and planting herbs! I have two parsley plants left from last year that are looking a little spindly, but the host of herb chat, Nancy said it should thicken up when it gets more sunlight. Obviously I’ve already started some parsley seeds, but I am not also going to be on the lookout for German chamomile, basil, thyme, and oregano. I already have orderedRead More →
Mystery Seeds
2014-02-19
Look how big my little cabbage sprouts are getting! They are getting so tall they are nearly at the top of the greenhouse. I ordered a 25 cell greenhouse and some more coir pellets from Burpee and I hope they get here soon because the cabbage is going to outgrow the height of this greenhouse soon! The kale is growing nicely too, I probably didn’t need to put three seeds in each one, three came up in one and two in the other. I know I’ll have to pull three of them, which seems a shame. I hate pulling the innocent little plants. IRead More →
Bulbs and Seeds
2014-02-18
I spent some time today organizing my seeds. My goal is to figure out what I have and what I need so I don’t buy what I already have – like last year…and the year before. I have way too many packages of cucumber and sunflowers! I found that a medium size index card sorter that I had works nicely for seeds. Though it won’t work for long if I get too many more, it is pretty full as it is! I also found some bulbs from last year that I’m pretty sure are narcissus. They somehow lost dirt or pushed themselves out ofRead More →
Sprouts
2014-02-17
My little cabbages first poked their green little heads out of the coir yesterday morning! By last night, they were up and showing their cotyledons. This morning they almost look like plants! The kale decided to germinate overnight too!Read More →
Kale and a Notebook
2014-02-14
I added some kale seeds to the greenhouse today, I decided I can put them out under the window in the hot bed with the cabbage. I’ve never actually eaten kale and I’ve never grown it before, but the cavies love it and even the rabbits will try a nibble. I picked up a packet of Burpee’s Dwarf Blue Curled Vates (admittedly, mostly because it looked the prettiest) and decided to give it a go. Who knows, I may even eat some of it myself! I also started a notebook. I decided it was important for me to know what I planted this year soRead More →
The First Seeds
2014-02-12
I planted some parsley and cabbage seeds today in the new greenhouse I bought. This is a small greenhouse from Burpee, and I plan to use it to sprout seeds. I hope to find a larger one to move them to under lights after they’ve sprouted. I got seeds from a friend, I just couldn’t wait to start growing stuff. I plan to put the parsley in pots outside for the summer, then inside for winter for year-round cavy and human food. I hope to transplant the cabbage into a hot bed under a window for some early cabbage, also for humans and cavies. AfterRead More →