Gardening - June 18

All right, here's the garden update: everything that I planted two weeks ago sprouted except about half of the carrots. Also, last Monday, we wound up at The Farm and I just HAD to buy tomato plants. I got Cherry Tomatoes (two to the pot) and "The Farm's Tomato" (whatever that means). They turned out to be $1 each or so which was fantastic. I feel like we bought something else besides the weekly flower and a bunch of veggies that were good. Strawberry season was such a disappointment and way too fast again. I could have bought a strawberry plant, but didn't see the point

Here's a photo from last week:

 The tomato plants are in the left hand corner in the bottom there, but that was last week.

Here are a few shots from today:

Mortgage Lifter Tomato, Sugar Snap Pea (transplanted today), Mortgage Lifter Tomato

Top Row: Eggplant, Sugar Snap Pea x3, Cucumber x2, Zucchini, Eggplant

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 Row 2: Cherry tomato, carrots, "Farm" Tomato

 In the corner of the above photo you can see Mortgage Lifters x3.

Zucchini flower the first successful one! I think...I hope! It was lovely this morning.

Mortgage Lifter being protected by an old sauce jar.

Cherry Tomato flowers.

There's about 4 carrot sprouts, I think.

Sometime during the week I broke the Mortgage Lifter Sprouts free and planted them. Being the person I am, I completely didn't think about the terrarium factor for them, so within hours, I had a few wilting. I was able to cover about 4 of the 5 that had made it. The one not covered is fighting bravely. There is one I think won't make it that is covered  and the others look pretty strong. The Brandywine Tomatoes never sprouted and it being the end of June, I don't think I'm going to try again. Now it is time to focus on making these guys survive to give me some actual food! Although, I'm running out of pots and sick of buying dirt which is another reason. The Snap Peas need to be split more (3 to a pot is probably not good) and the cucumbers need split too.

Our (I'm getting The Philosopher Musician involved) next project is to successfully pull off making compost, but that's for another post.

Lessons Learned:

• Plants need watered
• Tomato babies need protection until they get some larger leaves.

The Patriotic Quilt - June 4, 2012

Last night, I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep well. I do know however that at 3 AM, the Zucchini plant was facing the window. When I got up officially at 8:30 AM, the Zucchini plant was turn away from the window and a leaf was ripped.

I know who did it.

And he's fine, but I want to know why he decided last night of all nights to try to eat the Zucchini plant. We know he's been watching it and he likes plants, but I'm surprised he didn't just jump up onto the window sill before. Why did he wait until last night?

He, by the way, is Orange Cat (his online nickname, not his real name).

Since this happened, I decided today must be a good day to put Zucchini outdoors. He's big enough now to survive I think and it gives me a chance to check the seedlings (nothing on that front yet). Of course, it was cold and we had bizarre rain. The tomatoes, in regards to seedlings, are starting to sprout. The Mortgage Lifters are sprouting and most are out (going "YAY! LIFE!"). The Brandywine's are taking their good old time popping out of the dirt ("REALLY? NOW?") but they are there. So that's that in regards to gardening.

What I want to introduce you to today, is the Patriotic Quilt. A scrap quilt that I hope will fit our full size bed and be useful a little before I decide it must move on. It is a cacophony of color: reds whites, blues, and a few other hints of stuff, but mainly, Patriotic with fire works, dog prints, firemen, stars, stripes, and...Cleveland Indians print. Full disclosure here: this house is a Phillies house....HEY! The fabric was from family in Ohio, so that makes sense. It doesn't reflect on us at all. I was using scraps. I'm not going to throw out decent fabric. I justify this with baseball is Patriotic in general.

Hrm...if I could swing it, maybe I should get a yard of Phillies fabric for it?

Anyway, the quilt is about a year old at this point (in terms of working on it). I think. It started because I realized I had a bunch of patriotic scraps of sorts and I wanted to try to make a (scrap) quilt (top) and not a sampler size. One I could use. So, here's where it is at right now:

Patriotic Quilt - Laid out. Not sewn yet.

So, I'm sewing the center part right now and figuring out how I will frame it, then how to sew the other patches around the edge. Yep. Totally winging it again, but this is turning out pretty well.

Lesson Learned (more like the theme of the day)

• I can't do everything I want to do, but I can do something. Just focus on one thing at a time I guess.

Gardening - June 3

Totally as a whim, I asked The Philosopher Musician to pick up dirt for me on his way back from his errands. "The cheap stuff. It's in the back. Last time, there wasn't a price, but the bags were like $3 total." He did, which is very nice of him.

I wasn't planning to do anything regarding the garden today, but I'm antsy. I want to sew, but currently am working through "this is a good idea! Not really" thing so the sewing area is kind of a mess. 
...
Just looked at it. Not really, but there are some things that I guess are holding me up, like trying to cut all my scraps up into particular sized squares. The idea is from Cut the Scraps! book (link to official website and such). I'm like "I WANT IT ALL CUT NOW" but it is not going to happen. Especially when I have a trash bag of scraps that I got from family that I couldn't fathom going into the landfill. Either way, I wanted to sew, but skipped it in favor of...

Carrots. Well, gardening, but starting carrots has been on my mind. I broke into the fridge and took a look at the seeds there (these are all seeds my mom and I had collected through the years). I took out a few various packets of stuff to try. Apparently, now is a good time to sow stuff directly outside (or I've determined. It could be late for all I know). I did read the backs and determined a few choices.

This is gardening by totally winging it. I am too busy reading other books at the moment to take proper time to read gardening books. I'm impatient and I like trying things out, like a science experiment.

Well, a problem happened when I dumped the whole bag of dirt (they're not exactly large bags) into the container I was planning for the carrots. Oh...boy...I had one bag left. I'd have to chose carefully what was next. I filled the two smaller pots and started planting.

Here's what I planted: Carrots (about 8); Sugar Snap Peas (trying 4 seeds, will thin out later as package is from like 2003 or 2006); cucumbers (2, but I had luck with these actually sprouting last time). Gave them a little water and here they are:

I salvaged the pots, so they aren't the best or pretty,but they are fine by me. They were left over from landscaping Dad had done. Pots were just left there so I took a bunch. The bottom is full of the cardboard papery egg cartons, which seems perfect to line the bottom with.

Now, let's hope this works. We'll see in either a few days or a week. All this depends on weather and luck.

Lessons Learned:

• That green pot takes like, a bag + half of dirt.

In Which I Lied and Now, May I Introduce My Garden

Well, I thought that was a break only for the shop and not the blog. I decided to focus on my review blog and that is all fine and dandy, but I forgot, sorta about this one.

Well, I'm back. I guess and hope.

I was talking to The Philosopher Musician and I said "I guess I should be journaling all this stuff I'm doing" regarding my poor attempts at gardening (and self-sufficient living in a place it seems nearly impossible to do). I had thought, I'll grab one of my journals and turn it into that, but lately I've been craving some sort of online outlet for my thoughts. I'm even considering attempting something for work, but it doesn't seem prudent. Someone gave me a journal and I just need to start using it more.

Now, regarding the gardening attempt which I think I'll focus on today. Out of 8 seedling attempts (8 types at 4 per container at [1st mistake] 5 seeds a thing), only 3 plants have managed to survive somehow by luck. I had a fourth, but that was a random coincidence and it ultimately died. I'm on seedlings round number 2, just two tomato plant types, and so far all good. I all ready have sprouts and it has been three days. I'm trying hard not to dream about what I'm going to do with the tomatoes (Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter), but I'm just excited that my makeshift seed starter really works. I honestly just used cheap dirt, egg cartons (cardboard), and old takeout containers that snapped shut. I'll post pictures eventually. Oh, and also, the seeds are kinda old, like 2 years and older, so that's also pretty impressive.

Lesson Recap Here:

• Seed starting kits can be made with plastic takeout containers, cheap dirt, and paper/card egg cartons. Don't forget to water them before you snap it shut. Seeds will still grow and survive.
• Seedlings are actually pretty weak and not all seedlings can be treated the same.
• On this round, I need to deal with the seedlings when I start seeing mold, which I think is a product of the egg cartons.
• Refrigerate seeds and feel free to try growing them even if the package says "best by 2008." Chances are they might still grow and be fine! I should check the age of the zucchini packet (the thriving survivor of that seedling attempt) and eggplants (I got 2 of those to make it!). Although, I suspect that might also be the mold problem...and really I can't say that I've been successful until I've got a food but I'm hopeful.
• Don't start dreaming about a bountiful harvest.

In terms of apartment gardening where all you have access to is your balcony (which I also call the patio), zucchini and tomatoes, according to The New Kitchen Garden by Anna Pavord, are good starts. Reading about the eggplant though...they like tropical conditions so...this could prove interesting. I'm now determined. From The New Kitchen Garden by Anna Pavord (DK publishing, which I LOVE, 1996), I learned:

• Zucchini love water. And sunlight. That might explain why I think Zucchini 1 has been taking forever to grow and has yet to bloom. OOOOOH.
• Eggplant like heat and humidity, which might explain why they seem to be taking forever to grow, but the glass jar terrarium idea is still good.. Guess I need to add more water and move them to the patio where there is almost full sun (which might be a problem for other things later).

Actually, that's it. I didn't learn much about scallions, which we're going to be experimenting with. The Internet (multiple sites including LifeHacker) told us we could chop the green bits we need off, stick the white bit in water and it'll grow. It does, but now I want to know if we could make a cycle out of it: cut scallion, some green on it, move from water to dirt, pull from dirt, start cycle over. Only thing to do is try. We certainly have enough to experiment with.

Next steps:

• Figure out how to grow carrots. I have big pots I scavenged and wonder if they'll be deep enough to get at least a 6 inch carrot from.
• Test Scallion Theory.
• Locate a drill to make a compost bin for the patio. I have an 18 gal tub that I don't plan to use for storage, so I think that'll work nicely for compost at the moment (unless I locate a smallish trash can to drill holes into). I am determined to start a compost bin. The amount of compostable food waste we pitch is starting to bug me.
• Figure out or (hopefully) scavenge a window box to plant lettuce into so that we can have a "revolving" salad garden. We'd enjoy that very much I think.
• Remember to write about how the garden is doing and more about attempts at reducing stuff in general.