Taking Root

Almost all of the plants that are now outside have taken root and are thriving. The tulips are blooming, the eight month old lettuce is growing fast, and the chard is hardening and getting deeper in color.

Julia and I had a HUGE salad last night using nothing but our own lettuce. Five different kinds.

Notice the gigantic heart shaped mound on the left side of the front garden.

Renee's Garden, Chard, Red Cabbage, Carrots, & Beets

IN THE GROUND! Julia planted too rows of (Abbo) carrots and beet, direct sow. Today, I created the 'Pizza Pie,' planting a red cabbage (G.G. plant sale), Lucullus chard, two Bright Lights Swiss Chard, and three Renee's Garden Spitfire Nasturtiums (as well as four seeds, directly sowed).

Renee's Garden / More Starters!

Like I posted before, I started four Renee's Garden Spitfire Nasturtiums on February 26th. I planted these in roughly 2 in. x 2 in. x 4 in. (depth) pots using a mixture of Black Gold potting soil and cheaper, sandy garden soil. I left two seeds alone while nicking the other two. The ones that I nicked have each come up while only one of the others is barely poking out of the soil. The first one germinated in about 8 days, which would beat what it says on the back of the seed packet by one day (it says '9-12 days').

To the right, I have created a quick and easy reference point to when I started the Spitfires. Time permitting, I will plant these in several different ways, times, locations, and perhaps even different soils.

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More Starters! I went to work one day and came back to discover that Julia planted 7 (SEVEN!) egg cartons of seeds. This was probably two or three days ago.


Egg Carton #2 (as we already have a Egg Carton #1): Marigold, R.G. Rose Cosmos, Purple Dahlia Zinnia, Bright Lights Cosmos, Mixed Zinnia (two of each kind, four mixed zinnias)

Egg Carton #3: Cali Poppy Orange, Mikado Cali Poppy, Tall Shasta Daisy, Larkspur, Lobelia White Lady and Crystal Palace (two of each kind)

Egg Carton #4: Delphinium, Cosmos, Blue Love in a Mist, Snapdragons (multiples)

Egg Carton #5: Celeriac di Praga (celery root, the whole carton)

Egg Carton #6: Scented Basil Trio, Victorian Blue Sage, Lemon Bergamot

Egg Carton #7: Tomatoes, Bradywine, Yellow Taxi, Yellow Pear (2008), Yellow Pear (2009), Purple Cherokee

Egg Carton #8: Peppers,Criolla Sella, Aji Amarillo, Bolivian Rainbow, Tangerine Pimento

Some of the above seeds are from R.G., some from Abbo, and some (snaps, purple cherokee, some cosmos) were harvested by us.

The other egg carton (#1) is doing well. The snaps, basil, cosmos, blue love, morning glory, arugula, forellenschluss, swiss chard, and yellow pear are all coming up. The only ones not germinated yet are basil, lucullus chard, and aji amarillo. In the pots, everything is up except for one nasty, one chard, and the cilantro.

I have started to put the chard and some of the lettuce outside during the day to harden off. I would like to put these in the ground in a week or two. I know that I still will have to worry about a snow storm or two but perhaps I can figure out how to cover them quickly and easily if necessary. These plants should be okay outside in March in Colorado.

New Starters

Started more crops two days ago. I used an egg carton that we had around, poking holes in the bottom and using the lid as a water catcher. Twelve cells in all I planted: snapdragons (2), basil, R.G. double cosmos rose bon bon, nigella blue love in a mist, morning glory, arugula, lucullus chard, forellenschluss, bright lights swiss chard, aji amarillo pepper, and a yellow pear tomato.

I also planted twelve pots that are about 2 x 2 x 4. I planted four of the spitfire nastys (experimenting with clipping part of the seed in two (I will go in further detail about this later for the GROW project), four more chard, 2 more snaps, 1 cilantro, and one violet wave kale.

This brings me up to 50 cells/pots/containers of plants. All strategically located on the window sill.

Transplant

Did a little transplanting this morning. The chard and lettuce are looking good in their new homes. The anise looks a lot better too. We need to pinch off the tops so that it doesn't get too leggy.





Julia picked up a nice wooden box (originally for 125 lbs of kiwis) that is perfect for a raised bed. It is about 2 feet by 3 feet by 1 foot (depth). We still have left over windows from the materials I gathered when I was making the cold frame. I think one of the extra windows will fit perfectly on top. If we use it for cold tolerant plants like lettuce and chard, I think I will use the window as a top but not secure it onto the box so that it can easily be taken off. Also, our backyard has some trees and the house blocks the sun there as well. When it gets too hot, we could move this kiwi box to the back yard so that the lettuce can live in partial shade.



I read somewhere that chard is a good container crop. This made me start to think... I am too lazy (and I don't want to mess up too much of the yard) to expand the garden in the front yard. The wave and shark fin are fine. However, container growing is a great way for me to increase my gardening space. We have a nice flagstone patio that we could literally fill with container plants if we felt like it. We could even line the 'wave' with containers. Perhaps this can act as a buffer between the dogs and the garden.

Julia did some work on our compost heap as well. This is located close to our backyard at the end of the lettuce patch.



On a side note, the Russian women's curling team is really hot.

Fence

I built a fence yesterday out of bamboo sticks and garden netting. It is a little difficult to see from this photo, but the netting is there. Time will tell if it holds up against the dogs. But, for the time being, it was a quick and cheap way to keep them out of the onion and garlic patch.

The squash plant is loving life in the sunny corner, growing huge leaves and budding. The lettuce and chard are doing well, too.

Even some of the basil is starting to come back (a la 2nd edition). No sign of the onions yet, but it is too early.