I took a bunch of pictures of my lovely plants this morning. Still won't be able to upload directly until perhaps the middle of next week, but I did send several to my MobileMe gallery. There are some pictures of the plants in March when they first sprouted, as well as the photos from today. BONUS: since I can't seem to find a way to organize the photo album from this iPad, you also get several pictures of my lovely Lydia, and, I believe, a couple of pictures of bento lunches I packed last year!
Now I must get outside and get working on this beautiful sunny day.
Pictures, pictures, pictures.
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Seedlings, hardening off, ramblings
Not trusting my own judgment very nearly killed 1/3 of my seedlings today.
I stopped by the garden center yesterday, ostensibly to pick up some vermiculite, but mostly so that I could wander around and stare longingly at the fruit trees. I got to chatting with the woman working there and mentioned that I'd just started hardening off a bunch of my seedlings, though "not the warm-season stuff like tomatoes & basil."
"Oh, no" she insisted, "you absolutely should be setting those out by now!"
Hmm. Not from everything I'd read. But while I was hauling other plants outside this morning, I thought, "perhaps she's right. She probably has more experience than me." It was shady outside, and I was feeling impatient to get everything planted, so out went all of the flats. What should have registered in my brain, besides the shade, was the fact that it was in the low 40s outside.
What I brought back in were some decidedly unhappy-looking and limp plants. Now that they've been back inside for several hours, most of them look like they'll make it. They won't be going back out till mid-May.
All of the seedlings moved up in the world today, though, leaving the warm basement and taking over my kitchen table. Hauling trays up and down the stairs in order to set them outside was just not cutting it.
[Let's just pretend there are some lovely pictures here of my kitchen table covered in green, growing things, shall we? As soon as I have a functional laptop again I'll actually post some non imaginary ones.]
I stopped by the garden center yesterday, ostensibly to pick up some vermiculite, but mostly so that I could wander around and stare longingly at the fruit trees. I got to chatting with the woman working there and mentioned that I'd just started hardening off a bunch of my seedlings, though "not the warm-season stuff like tomatoes & basil."
"Oh, no" she insisted, "you absolutely should be setting those out by now!"
Hmm. Not from everything I'd read. But while I was hauling other plants outside this morning, I thought, "perhaps she's right. She probably has more experience than me." It was shady outside, and I was feeling impatient to get everything planted, so out went all of the flats. What should have registered in my brain, besides the shade, was the fact that it was in the low 40s outside.
What I brought back in were some decidedly unhappy-looking and limp plants. Now that they've been back inside for several hours, most of them look like they'll make it. They won't be going back out till mid-May.
All of the seedlings moved up in the world today, though, leaving the warm basement and taking over my kitchen table. Hauling trays up and down the stairs in order to set them outside was just not cutting it.
[Let's just pretend there are some lovely pictures here of my kitchen table covered in green, growing things, shall we? As soon as I have a functional laptop again I'll actually post some non imaginary ones.]
Monday, March 21, 2011
Growing Things
There’s not really any good place to grow vegetables in my fairly-urban backyard.
Half the yard is taken up by The Pond, aka hole in the ground surrounded by native plants. Another quarter is an ugly brick patio. The remaining quarter holds a swing set, mulch, and big bare spots of mud carved out by our German shepherd dog, Crowley.
This year I was determined to figure out *some* way to grow some food, which is how I ended up with a giant stack of 10 storage-tub-sized plastic planters, a.k.a. Earthboxes, in my entryway.
There’s still more than a month until warm-season crops can safely get planted here in Chicagoland, though, so most of them will be sitting there for a while.
While I’m waiting, there are trellises to build and seeds to sprout.
Currently sprouting in the basement: spearmint, black-eyed susans, lavender, rosemary, chard, basil, oregano, thyme, and several kinds of tomatoes and peppers. The first four on the list were planted ~2 weeks ago and look to largely be coming in nicely. The rest were just planted this weekend, so I’m still waiting for them to sprout.
Half the yard is taken up by The Pond, aka hole in the ground surrounded by native plants. Another quarter is an ugly brick patio. The remaining quarter holds a swing set, mulch, and big bare spots of mud carved out by our German shepherd dog, Crowley.
This year I was determined to figure out *some* way to grow some food, which is how I ended up with a giant stack of 10 storage-tub-sized plastic planters, a.k.a. Earthboxes, in my entryway.
There’s still more than a month until warm-season crops can safely get planted here in Chicagoland, though, so most of them will be sitting there for a while.
While I’m waiting, there are trellises to build and seeds to sprout.
Currently sprouting in the basement: spearmint, black-eyed susans, lavender, rosemary, chard, basil, oregano, thyme, and several kinds of tomatoes and peppers. The first four on the list were planted ~2 weeks ago and look to largely be coming in nicely. The rest were just planted this weekend, so I’m still waiting for them to sprout.
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