Pretty seed packets, come home with me. I want to make a quilt out of you or something.I'm trying to start a lot more from seed this year: sugar snap peas, snow peas, green beans (their name is "Contender," which I love -- I imagine little beans putting on boxing gloves and running up and down the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum), tri-color bush beans, radishes, spinach, mesclun greens, more varieties of herbs. That stuff is going directly in the ground, but I'm also trying to start tomatoes indoors:
J returned from his travels last month with two varieties of tomato seeds, Oregon Spring and Yellow Jubilee, so I invested the $2.99 at yonder Agway for one of those mini-greenhouse trays and put it in the warmest, sunniest spot in the house. Everything was going swimmingly for the first week or two, until one morning when the first seedlings started hitting the top of the plastic lid and I decided it was time to take it off. When I got home from work that day, I was greeted with this:
We have lost our nascent will to live.Put the lid back on and the seedlings are fine again, but I'm now getting to the point where their growth is being stunted because they're hitting the lid, and they don't even tolerate a small amount of time without it. Tonight, I only had it off for a few hours before the melodramatic drooping started. I'm thinking maybe it's a lack of water, and they need a water tray beneath them? Or they're too cold, in which case I have no solution. Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Another new develoopment this year is that I have a partner in gardening crime. My friend, who will henceforth be known as H, has a spot in the community garden this year too, and she and her boyfriend and I have three plots next to each other. We spent most of yesterday building a gigantic 75-foot fence with J (H, I and J! ha), and today she and I were out for several hours doing our first plantings -- peas and radishes for me and potatoes for her. She is already putting me to shame with her neatly square raised beds and her detailed map that is, like, measured out and stuff.
In summary: Yay! I missed the garden and now it is back all over again.
7 comments:
I have to go looking for seeds this week, once I get all my plants in the ground.
Where did you find your lovely beans? I want something different than just plain green beans, you know?
Am wondering if it's too warm here already to plant peas. Thoughts?
Yay!
I bought tomatoes and herbs at MDSW. Can't wait to get them in the ground.
Of course, it would have been smart to come straight home and do it before our week-of-rain started, but whatever.
I'm excited to follow along your garden adventures!
Garden time -- hurray! I can't way to hear all about the progress when you are back in town over Mem Day weekend.
I found beans! That I think are probably from the same place yours are from, because I saw the Contender ones.
They're going in the ground next weekend.
Shannon: Oh excellent. Most of my seeds are from Agway and some of them are the generic store brand, but some of them are those fancy Renee's Garden ones with the drawings on the packets, and others are the Seeds of Change organic ones, and then still others are just whatever was on the shelf. I would have volunteered to get you some and mail them, but it seems like you've found them just fine. Woo! You're definitely not too late, either, and I think you'd still be fine if you wanted to put in peas.
Jo: If anything is coming up from my garden by Memorial Day, I will bring you some. :) The radishes are supposedly only 22 days until full maturity, but I'm doubtful.
Ann: MDSW seedlings will doubtlessly be better than those bought anywhere else. I'm excited to floow along with your garden adventures too...
I planted a zillion seeds a little over a week ago. I, too, used one of those greenhouse things. Mine looks a little different, though. Mine had 72 depressions in the plastic, which were filled with those peat pot things that start like little discs but then expand when you add water. But the tray with the peat pots actually sits inside another tray that holds water, and it sucks it up through holes in the bottom.
My pea plants are about 7 inches tall right now, and I just planted them last Saturday! So, needless to say I had to take the cover off my greenhouse things after just a few days. My plants seem to be doing fine, but they haven't dried out, either. Is it possible that your spot is TOO warm or too sunny? The instructions on mine said to put it in indirect sunlight. I have mine about 2 feet away from the window in our sunroom. It seems to be working really well there, and I only had to add water to the base once so far. If anything the peat pots seem too moist, because a few have started growing a little bit of mold. Maybe try moving it to s spot that gets indirect sun?
I am envious of everybody's gardens. Alas, I'll be container gardening from the sidelines this year. Maybe a special herb blend by Gwen will find it's way to my mailbox this year...?
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