May 18, 2008

it’s tomato and squash planting week!

This looks like a good week to transplant my tomato seedlings. Also my squashes, pumpkins and cukes. The temperature is staying sort of warm – about 50 F at night and up near 70 on sunny days. I’ve seen nearby gardens with tomatoes and squash already planted. I think its time to set mine out. I have some fancy thermal plastic this year. Its from Johnny’s and lets near IR through, but not visible light. This is supposed to warm up the soil well. I’ll try this under my tomatoes…

May 18, 2008

carrot seedlings

After three weeks, I have carrot sprouts! All three of my varieties. Lots of very tiny seedlings. I put my macro lens on my camera to get a photo. We got nearly an inch of rain last night and they have a bit of mud on them today. But they are looking good. No sign of parsnip seedlings yet. Since I’ve never grown them before, I’m not sure what to look for. I’ll keep watching….Daucus carota

May 16, 2008

soaking morning glory seeds

My mom told me this morning that she just planted her morning glory seeds. She said she soaked them overnight in water then planted them directly in the garden. I was pleased to be reminded of the morning glory seeds I saved last year. Mine are have a dark purple flower. My Mom’s are blue. I’ll have to remember to collect some of her seeds this fall.

May 14, 2008

winter sowing results

I’ve opened up my winter sowing bottles. From the far left (the ones that grew best are bold-type):Rudbeckia Indian Summer, Tansy, Delphinium Fantasia MixPurple Coneflower, Hollyhock Zebrina, Onions White PortugalWild Heliopsis, Dukat Dill, Delphinium Magic Fountains MixOnions Sweet Yellow Spanish, Shasta Daisy Alaska, Rudbeckia Green Eyes Most of these did well. Only two pots have no sprouts: the wild heliopsis seeds that I collected and the Delphinium Fantasia mix. winterplanting

May 5, 2008

cucumber sprouts

Its a good week for planting squash-type seeds indoors in pots. Seeds like cukes, squashs, pumpkins and watermelons (curcurbits)… Maybe the weather will be warm enough to plant them outside next week! We’ll see. Here’s what I have growing inside now: Sowed April 21:Watermelon (1 3-pack), sprouted April 29 (8 days)Zucchini, Caserta (1 3-pack), no sprouts yet 🙁Zucchini, Cashflow (1 3-pack), sprouted April 25 (6 days)Summer squash, Sunburst (1 3-pack), sprouted April 30 (9 days)Summer squash, Zephyr (1 3-pack), sprouted April 29 (8 days)Summer squash, Starship pattypan (1 3-pack), sprouted…

May 2, 2008

tomato seedlings

They’re small, but I have lots of varieties. And they are growing well. I bring the tomatoes outside for extra light when the temperature is above 50 F. Otherwise, they are on a window sill. Solanum lycopersicum

April 28, 2008

keeping my tomato seedlings warm

We’re having some cool, wet spring weather this week. I was worrying about my tender little tomato sprouts that have been out in my mini hoop house all last week. I looked up the minimum temperature for tomato seedlings. 50 degrees F. I also put a little temperature probe in the outdoor hoop house. Its 49.8 F out there this morning. So I brought the tomatoes seedlings inside. I don’t have much table space inside, especially with bright light. But I gave the tomatoes seedlings the good spot with the…

April 25, 2008

planting potatoes

My first crop is planted at my new community garden. Yippee!! (I know, it just looks like a pile of dirt.) I’ve been saving old potatoes to plant and they were growing before they hit the dirt. I have read warnings not to use supermarket potatoes for seed because of sprout inhibitors. It appears any of these have worn off of these spuds. I use the trench method to plant potatoes. I dug a little trench and spread out the potatoes. I then planted each, sprouts up, about 3-4 inches…

April 24, 2008

transplanting tomatoes and peppers

This was my garden work for today. I spent a pleasant hour in the backyard this evening transplanting several trays of peppers and tomato seedlings. They have all grown up well, with the exception of the last two rows of tomatoes. They fried in the sun today since the plastic cover didn’t cover them properly. I lost all of my New Girl seedlings. Oh well…. I was transplanting the small tomatoes seedlings from the crowded seeded tray I started them in, into larger individual pots. The pots and trays of…

April 21, 2008

more sowing

I am doing some more indoor seed sowing today. Its time to start the squashes, watermelon and cukes. I’ll also sow some beets, basil and zinnias. And some more onions, lettuce and marigolds. Probably about one 6-pack of each – not very many. I have a nice pane of glass I found, so I will try to construct a cold frame and leave these new trays out in my side yard. The weather is getting quite mild and my sprinklers make watering easy. The squashes, beets, onions and flowers are…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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