Gardening 2014 - April 22 (Or, how I keep whining about my Brandywine Tomato seeds)

First, we keep having beautiful days! They are lovely. I love it.

On the flip side we're still getting into freezing temperatures at night which has annoyed me as I have three potted plants now. I've given up on the herbs from last year and the lettuce seeds I had outside (I can't keep them wet enough). I do have "globes" for the living plants which are basically plastic jugs, cut in half and put over the plants at night. We then throw a moving blanket over the whole set up and keep the pots close to the apartment itself.

So far it's working. Just have to remember to do this tonight as there is a frost advisory.

I haven't had much happen in the garden department. We did buy plants last week and I lost some sprouts, gained some others, and am trying desperately to get some Brandywine Tomato Sprouts...period. The old seeds (5-10 years) did sprout, then they got mold and died. I tried again. Nothing. Something else sprouted in the container so a few days ago, I just moved the old seeds and put some High Mowing ones in. The other High Mowing container has a sprout as of yesterday (What? That's been sitting LONGER) and I have Cherry Tomato Sprouts.

It all confuses me and I'm being sort of lazy because I've been (yep) sick off and on the last few weeks and busy, busy, busy (which probably caused the sick last week).

But hey, so far so good. I lost a broccoli sprout (not sure how that happened right now), gave up on a few others and keep trying to get Brandywine Tomatoes.

Garden Status:

Seed Sprouts:

• 1 baby broccoli plant (waiting on the 4 inch size to transplant. Also, technically two but from the same spot. If I can split the sprouts and get two plants, I will!)
• 2 Cherry Tomatoes (pictured left)
• 1 (MAYBE) Brandywine Tomato
• Some random weeds in a seed pod that I'm waiting to see what exactly they are before I say "good bye" to them.

Purchased:

• The Farm Variety Broccoli. We love their broccoli and the price was right so I'm giving it a try.
• Marigolds (to be planted with tomatoes. Some are outside, some aren't).
• Snap dragons (they are just pretty).

Lessons Learned:

• I am impatient at gardening, but I do like it.

Gardening - 2014 - March 24 (Or, something happened to a seed starting pod so I got organic seeds.)

Last time I wrote about the garden, I had:

• three pods starting seeds: lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli.
• The pods were in a different window from last year because of Orange Cat 2.
• I had no sprouts and we were getting to the 10 day mark.

 What I did since then:

• I opened the pods and added more water because they looked dry.
• I moved them into the better window.
• The cat is not at fault for the loss of the lettuce pod.

Saturday. We had wonderful, open-the-windows kind of weather. The kind where you wish the whole world was off and you could enjoy the weather. The kind where you go home, grab Husband, and take a 1.74 mile walk around the large awesome park nearby.

The kind where Husband clumsily knocked the lettuce pod out of the window while I'm at work because he didn't check that the pod was sitting in the window track. I really don't know who is at fault here: me for putting it there or him for not checking. Either way, the lettuce pod was a mess of dirt inside of it (thankfully, it did not pop open and send dirt everywhere. OC2 would have loved that).

I was kind of bummed. Actually, when I saw it, I thought OC2 did it. It was right up his alley to just go "WHOOPS. (Not really). Feed me."

Nope. It was Husband and he probably could have blamed OC2. Husband's first thought was "You can just fix it."

"No. There is dirt everywhere. I have no idea where the seeds will sprout, if they do and if something else sprouts, I'll have no idea what's what. I have to start over."

So, he felt kind of bad about it. I said "I want these organic seeds I know we can get [here]. You can pay for the seeds when I figure out the brand name."

"Okay."

Sunday, it is colder and we have errands that will take us by the place with the seeds. We go there and at this point, I'm feeling less annoyed with him. I'm also wondering how the destruction of the lettuce pod means I get 7-8 packs of seeds. I forgive him (I forgave him pretty quickly because I decided the seeds weren't really working anyway. They are 5-10 years old. Same group as last year.). I decide to just pay for them myself and he decides he's going to treat me to pizza later that night.

At the store, I pick up seven packs of High Mowing Seeds. This includes: Brandywine tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Arugula, Basil, Romain Lettuce, Sweet Pepper, and Spinach. I was so excited. I love the idea of new seeds and possibly non-GMO ones? Yes, please!

What I did today (or status as of today):

• I set up more seed pods bringing the seed pods to the following:



Pods: Small, plastic take out containers, 4 egg slots of a paper egg carton, water, dirt (I'm using compost), seeds. Works very well with good lighting!

• Original: Brandywine Tomatoes (Burpee seeds, older), Broccoli.
• High Mowing: Brandywine Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Lettuce (not shown. In another window due to lighting and temperature), Sweet Pepper (this plant is for our Guinea Pig and is a total experiment)
• Broccoli has sprouted! Two of the four have come up so those seeds aren't "bad." That's from an older, refrigerated seed pack. Look at those sprouts!

Here's hoping the third year is a charm!

Lessons Learned:

• Read seed packages or research how to grow things. Most will do well where they are, but the lettuce will probably do fine at room temperature during the day and tucked into the pod at night. I learned so much by reading the packaging this year. Let's see if it translates into our own food.

Garden Photos - July 31, 2013

After the last post, I got to thinking "Gee, I really should post some pictures." I also thought "I REALLY should put the Lemon Verbena in a bigger pot and plant the Marigolds before I lose a second set."

So, that's what I did. Monday, I re-potted the Lemon Verbena. I can't tell if it helped or not, but so far, it is still alive! I only lost one of the six Marigolds but so far, they look lovely as well. Tuesday, I took a few quick photos. Today, I posted the photos! Enjoy.

Lemon Verbena. Yes, I know, how is it still alive?

The Marigolds all happily potted.

And the lettuce. I have no idea what I'm growing now. I just hope I get a head of lettuce.

Gardening - 2013 - July 29

My life has been hecktic. Suffice to say, my one 16 year old cat was diagnosed with cancer back in February and we lost him this month. I'm also trying to sort through stuff both literally and figuratively, which has been good. I also got myself a new computer (Hello, Steam. I missed you). Oh and Summer Reading Madness.

So the garden. Here's where I stand:

• Two mint plants from The Farm: Chocolate and Apple
• A catnip plant.
• Marigolds to attract bees, but a bit late it seems.
• Two lettuce. One should be iceberg but the other sprout seems to look NOTHING like the other. Maybe Little Caesar?
• Lemon Verbena plant barely holding on (needs potted in a bigger pot).
• Same tomatoes as before but I think I'm only getting two tomatoes in total this year. :-\ That's all that's growing. Might be getting more flowers soon. Not sure.
• A strawberry plant
• And a compost that was doing well then got screwed up (too wet) and I will turn around again because I've done so before. Although, the tub is pretty full.

Gardening is a lukewarm success this year. I'm happy to report that I got things from seed to survive, but all I can think is that in Year 3, I'll pull off what I want from my garden. Until then, it is nice to have the garden even if it isn't doing much. I'm hoping this winter I can move stuff to the greenhouse I wound up with (it's a little dinky thing) just to winter it over (i.e. the strawberry plant) as I like the herbs and am happy to have them.

The Etsy shop will be back I hope by the end of August. I just needed a break as I wasn't checking it and it needs more focus than I could dedicate. I also was just trying to see what stuff I took away I missed and surprisingly, the shop fell into that. Finding the time to craft for it though is hard.

Lessons Learned

• Need more flowering plants or bees, but I doubt I can keep bees here (township says I could but considering I'm in an apartment...)
• Need to reconsider where the tomato plants went because I can't put them all along the outer edge.

Gardening 2013 - May 5th

Here I am finally sitting down to start tracking my garden again. I hope you were wondering "Is she trying again? Any luck? Or did she give up completely and start consuming like everyone else?"

Well, no. I'm back to gardening. This year I was smart. This year I learned a few things from last year. This year I've introduced new things. This year I glanced at books. Last weekend I started saying "I should start the gardening journal back up again." I've always been intrigued at the idea of a gardening journal. There was a book I listened to that talked about a journal from the colonial times that talked about what was cooked and what was planted. It sounded amazing. Here we go.

January to March 2013:

• Started 8 things of seeds up again. These included: Broccoli, Iceberg Lettuce, Little Caesar Lettuce, Brandywine Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Zucchini, and Peas of some variety. Please note, most of these seeds have dates of 200? to 2010. They've been in the fridge forever and some still grow!
• What actually grew: Broccoli, Iceberg Lettuce, Brandywine Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifters, Zucchini, Cucumbers.
• What actually survived to March and was potted: Brandywine Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifters, Zucchini.
• What I tried a second time in window box, outside: Iceberg Lettuce, Little Caesar.
• What I've bought: butter-something lettuce; cucumbers

Currently in the garden:

• Currently alive and very well (I think) is:
• 4-5 Brandywine Tomato plants (one is very weak but I don't have the heart to end it yet)
• 2 Mortgage Lifter Tomato plants
• 2 Cucumbers of a bush variety sharing a pot.
• 1 Zucchini plant
• 2 Iceberg Lettuce sprouts (last week I drowned one. ;_; )\
• 5 Butter-something (butter crunch I think) Lettuce from The Farm. One was nothing when I got it and I brought it back. Yay me!

Today I finally re-potted some of the tomato plants. I have some 8 inch diameter pots and I kept looking at the 12 inch tall tomato plants and (I think) they were sprouting roots above the dirt. So those in the tiny pots (2-3inches wide) from last month, got re-potted. 

I'm going to keep an eye on what I dubbed "the twins." The twins are two Brandywine Tomato plants that grew together in the pot. They split apart very easily at their roots (unlike the cucumbers I bought that live together in a pot) and now have their own pots. I'm oddly worried they will miss sharing a pot, but I'm hopeful all will have enough room to grow even more until they get planted in their final, 12 inch diameter pots (pretty red things that I treated myself too). Right now they are chilling outside as I'm attempting to harden them off, which I admit, will more likely look like "Hey! Nice weather. Out you permanently go!"

The only downside to the tomato plants so far is that Mortgage Lifters and Brandywines are probably not appropriate to container gardening so I may not have much of a crop but I'm totally winging it. Tomorrow, I'm hoping I can pick up a cherry tomato or Roma tomato plant (both my favorites in general) and one of them I'm certain is container friendly.

I also moved the Zucchini pot. I'm not sure if it is where it should be at this point in the season size-wise, but I realized it needed more sun, so it should be in a better spot now.

Lastly, my compost bin is awesome. I have some great compost but it still has a way to go. I'm hoping for more dirt in a few weeks so I can add that to the pots when I transplant the tomatoes.

Lessons Learned

• I still have lettuce and I have no idea what I'm doing (more of a need to learn).
• Sow seeds early, be attentive to plants, and so far so good.
• I have no patience for veggie plants (why won't they grow bigger and faster! Oh wait...because I'm not a fertilizer type person. I should but I do not like the idea of fertilizer.).

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

.

 

 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.