Seedlings

This year our seedlings are getting their start in the laundry room on top of the warm washer and dryer! I started my seedlings alot later this year than I have in the past, but they are doing great in here! Bryan hooked our grow light from the ceiling and we set it up on a timer. The seedlings love the warmth from the dryer and it has helped them get going fast!

This year we are attempting tomato grafting! Im so excited to see the potential...or just learn from my failure, who knows :) They are MaxiFort Tomatoes and quite vigorous and disease resistant!

Oh it looks so cute and innocent right now, but I guess it will literally take over your garden if the top isnt chopped off and grated to a normal tomato plant. 

Hardening off the seedlings...getting ready for planting!

 Its time to start hardening off the plants and getting them ready for the garden!!
The night before last Bryan built me a counter top out on our back deck. He used 2-12 foot treated planks (2"x12") and secured them to the railing, then braced it all up and trimmed it out! It has been nice to have a little extra  counter space...especially nice for the kids to eat outside! This counter has been perfect for bringing the plants outside! Yesterday was their first day outside and we had a slightly overcast day with nice misty rain coming down...and mild wind. All those factors made it perfect for their first day outside! They were only out for about 4 hours and then the hot sun came out and the winds picked up, so I brought them back inside.

The tomatoes are doing fantastic and will be ready to go in the ground in just a week or so!

 We have several varieties of lettuce and they are looking good as well, along with arugula, bok choy, spinach, celery, and a colorful array of peppers and flowers!

Im still trying to get my garden planned exactly how I want it to lay out...I keep changing my mind! The hardest part is the rotation! I dont want to plant my tomatoes all in the same place as last year (for soil reasons), but they worked SO good there last year so I am having a hard time seeing them be as fabulous anywhere else. We are also trying to utilize our beds better! Since our garden is on drip irrigation (which is awesome!!) I have to be careful not to have empty places in the garden that are being watered just because the rest of the bed is being watered. Planning and preparation is crucial. There are also a few plants that I am not planting again (broccoli, carrots, potatoes) and am going to try and focus on larger quantities of the tomatoes, beans, peas, leafy greens, peppers, and onions. This way I can utilize my beds and rotations better and barter my produce with someone who is actually good at growing the stuff that totally fails here :)
I am really excited for this gardening season and can not wait to see my little seedlings in the ground...and on my dinner plate!!!  

Starting Seeds in Egg Cartons

I have read a lot about egg cartons being an excellent way to start seeds so I thought this year I might as well give it a try!! The small slots seem like they are going to be a little small to hold the roots of some of the seedlings, but I can always transplant them into larger pots if necessary. Last year we use large round pots for all of our seedlings and it took up quite a bit of space as well as needing 2 grow lights to accommodate all the pots. This year we are doing more seeds in less space and only requiring 1 grow light! I filled up all my egg cartons with dirt outside and carried them all inside to a warm, well lit room to start adding the seeds. Some of the seeds I did choose to put 2 seeds per slot just to make sure we have something growing in each compartment...in case there is a low germination rate!

Within a few days the arugula and lettuce were starting to sneak through the soil and make their appearance! This is one of my favorite things to see! Every time I come in to see the plants, there is so much new life that has grown! Henry and Addie loved waking up each morning and running in to count how many new plants were coming up.

It is so rewarding to start your own seeds. It is definitely more work than just buying them the day you want to plant them, but there is so much enjoyment from watching them grow!

(these pictures were all from last week, Ill post an updated picture of the growth!)

Garden Planning!! My favorite time of year

Ive been working hard to get all my seeds organized and plan exactly what will be going into our garden this year! It has been so fun! I love sitting at my front window right beside my wood burning stove with a hot fire and looking out the window at snow on the ground while dreaming of a warm spring garden! But the planning is coming to an end because these plants are being started and we are getting a few nice days to get out and work the dirt! 

For my planning I have #1 "The Vegetable Gardeners Bible" (MUST HAVE book for gardening!!), as well as a diagram of my garden layout, and last but not least...a spreadsheet of all my seeds and how many plants I am wanting to start! I try to put as much information on my 2 sheets as possible so I can refer to them for all my information instead of having to look up info online or fumble through tons of seed packets. 

As the cold winter days come to an end, I will be spending the last few by my wood stove just dreaming of getting my hands dirty in the garden!

My New Toy!!!

Yes, mommies deserve new toys too! 

I started all my seeds and got into watering them daily and I am realizing how sore my hand is going to get using a spray bottle to "mist" all these seedlings twice a day! I did it last year, but I sure don't remember it being this frustrating. Bryan came home from work today with this delightful pump sprayer!! It was $7 at Lowes.  "GardenPlus Garden Sprayer". I am excited to water tomorrow!! It is so extremely easy to give these tiny seeds a good misting of water without disturbing the soil or making 10 trips to the sink to refill my water bottle while trying to avoid hand cramps!

I hate spending money, but this is $7 WELL spent! 

Garden Update...fall planting

Its been pretty busy around here...fun and busy! The garden has been extremely productive and some of the spring plants are harvested and gone and we are onto fall planting! In the first row you can see our watermelon hills that we just planted a few days ago that took the place of all the squash and zucchini from spring planting. Then the next bed up you can see the celery looking full and the empty spot is where we had some lettuce and radishes, but that has been worked in with some compost and we planted more lettuce and some spinach and chives. The third row up is where the beans and potatoes used to be and we have harvested all those (getting over 100 lbs of vegetables from that bed alone) and are working the soil with several wheelbarrows full of compost to get ready for more bush beans, bush peas and some arugula. The 4th row is where the sweet potatoes, tobacco, peppers and basil are residing. The 5th row (which you cant see in this picture past the tobacco) has carrots, peppers, eggplant, basil, and some newly planted radishes (planted today). The 6th row has all our tomato plants (we call it the wall of tomatoes) and a row of celery in front of that. The back bed is where the asparagus was planted, but it doesn't get much sunlight because of the wall of tomatoes so I hope it makes it.

 

 This is a close up of the sweet potatoes, they are vining out everywhere and looking really good!

The basil pretty much hides the rest of this bed...but its ok, I LOVE basil!!

Eggplant! I couldn't be happier with this heirloom variety of eggplant! This one plant alone has 4 beautiful eggplants hanging off of it waiting for harvest!

Close up of the celery and onions.

The shade is creeping in on this bed, but this is where we planted the next round of radishes.

Here is one angle of the "wall of tomatoes".

Another angle of the celery and carrots.

Sweet potatoes, with the peppers and tobacco in the back of this picture.

Eggplant.

Prepping the beds with rich compost to get ready for fall planting.

Addie was a big helper today with the compost.

Strike a pose!! Addie loves "petting" the basil, she thinks the flowers are pretty...she used to pick them and I didn't care because we had SO many, but now she has lost interest in picking the flowers she just loves to look at them and smell them.

The bees love the basil too!!

We are trying a new method of composting (well new to us anyway). Compost corral! We were having a hard time with the goats and chickens getting in the compost and moving all 3 of our organized piles together, so we thought we would give this a try with one of the piles just to see how it turned out...we'll keep you updated!!

Seed Starting Plug Tray 288 Cells in 1 Flat! Part 2

The 288 seedling plugs are planted! I am so excitted about this little tray! I planted 4 rows of Arugula, 3 rows of Lettuce, 4 rows of Spinach and 1 row of a different Spinach. All of these varieties say that they can be planted as fall crops so Im hoping that all goes good too. Ive never done fall crops before so we will see how this works out!

We have a lot of little spaces available in the garden that I have been told would be perfect for lettuce and spinach so as these little seedlings pop up and are ready to be transplanted I will just put them in the garden where there is space at the time. Once the radishes come up we will have space there! I still have a few weeks to figure it out though :)

I got all the seeds planted last night and then set it outside this morning for some good sunlight. I know I usually say to get the kids involved in everything, but the planting of these little seedlings might be one thing to do on your own. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would and it was very tedious! Putting one tiny little seed into the tiny little cell...Ill admit Im pretty sure that I got more than 1 seed in a few of the cells. Especially the arugula seeds, they are very similar in color to the dirt and when I would drop the tiny seed in there I would try to find it and really couldnt! So who knows what we will actually come up with! It was alot of fun, but it might be one thing to do without the "tiny little hands" involved or you will end up with hundreds of little seeds EVERYWHERE!

I put a clear tray topper on top of the tray to help keep in moisture and warmth and keep out the birds, squirrels and rabbits...as well as children :)

Seed Starting Plug Tray 288 Cells in 1 Flat!

I was at our local feed store on Saturday to pick up a few odds and ends and I bumped across this AMAZING seed starting tray!

It is the standard size seed starting tray, but it has 288 cells! I was standing looking at it slightly puzzled and the owner of the store came over to ask me if I needed any help (His name is George and he is GREAT! He knows about our little "adventures" here and is always full of advice...which I absolutely love!). I asked him how this worked and if it was really affective so he took me to their greenhouse to show me how they are using them and they had about 15 of these little trays set up with thousands of plants starting! He said to just let the grow until they are about an inch or two tall and then transplant it (using a pencil to gently push the roots and plant out from the bottom).

We could have started ALL of our seedlings in this one little tray instead of having so many trays right at first! Im so excitted to give this tray a try! It was only $1.99 so I went ahead and got one and am going to get a few seedlings going for a late crop.

Ill keep you updated on the progress of these little plants but I can tell you now that I am SO excitted! I cant believe how much space we wasted by starting all our seeds in the 4" pots right at the start...but I guess its all about learning!