First seeds in the ground

Phil planted our lettuce and spinach seeds in the beds today.

We are growing Romaine lettuce, a gourmet lettuce mix, and just regular old spinach (I think).

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring!

Phil did a lot of hard work today. We started off at Home Depot to get some supplies. 

We decided to add a Humus & Manure mixture to the smaller bed. We were thinking of buying it for both and were waying the costs. And we just weren't sure what to do. We decided to buy it for the smaller bed to see how we thought it worked out compared to the bed that didn't have any.

When we got home Phil went to work turning the soil in both of the beds. Once that job was done he used string to create the grid so that we can lay our plants out according to the design.

Be sure use galvanized screws and nails when
you are building raised bed or adding a grid.
These don't rust.

   

Quick picture of the seedlings. The ones on the
Left are the Superbowl Sunday seeds.
They are getting pretty tall!

I've been neglecting this little blog. Although to be fair nothing much has been happening. The little plants are doing a good job growing. Phil got some more dirt to fill in the raised beds.

Phil's Superbowl Sunday seeds after 5 weeks.

My little guys after 4 weeks.

After watching the local spring forecast for March, we are being patient about starting our lettuces and spinach outside. All in good time.

Seedling Update

Our little seeds are doing well. They are now little plants.

Here are the Superbowl Sunday seeds after 2 weeks.

Here are the seeds I started last week:

Pretty soon we'll be planting our lettuce and spinach seeds outside!

One Week Later

The seeds Phil started last week started growing already! Some of the tomatoes, peppers, and the broccoli came up. I think the broccoli was first.

I started a new tray today with yellow pear tomatoes, banana peppers, marigolds, and two types of zinnias. I also found some seeds from last year!

Phil has been busy putting in a new side door today. He has been working super hard. 

Besides starting new seeds, I've been trying my hand at making my very first homemade sauce. I already know one thing I need to do differently next time, but I still think it is going to be delicious.

Seed Starting

Last week Phil got a little case of cabin fever, so we went out int he FREEZING cold to buy seeds and mini-greenhouses to start some seeds in. We got 3 types of tomatoes (Roma, Beefsteak, and Cherry), two types of peppers (jalapeño and bell - we forgot banana!), eggplant, and broccoli. 

We started our seeds on Sunday, Feb 6 (Super Bowl Sunday!).

We decided to do 6 pods of cherry tomatoes, 6 pods of roma tomatoes, 8 pods of beefsteak, 4 of eggplan, 4 of broccoli, 4 bell, and 4 jalapeño. We based this on the plan we have for our garden and how many plants we think we'll need. I am hoping we guessed/planned correctly. We still have one more greenhouse that we can start some seeds in, we just need to figure out what.

So now our little seeds are living in the basement, under a lamp and hopefully we'll start to see a little green soon.

What is Square Foot Gardening?

I had never heard of Sqaure Foot Gardening until the day Phil and Wes put in our beds. Wes had a book on it  and is letting us borrow it. I'm not much of a non-fiction reader so I told Phil he had to do the reading for this because there was no way I'd make it 10 pages in without getting bored and putting it down.

According to Wikipedia Square Foot Gardening is:

Is the practice of planning small but intensively planted gardens. The phrase "square foot gardening" was  popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale Press book and subsequent PBS television series. The practice combines concepts from other organic gardening methods, including a strong focus on compost, closely planted raised beds and biointensive attention to a small, clearly defined area. Proponents claim that the method is particularly well-suited for areas with poor soil, beginning gardeners.

I'm definitely not an expert and haven't done any reading on this, but from what I can tell you separate your garden into square foot sections. You grow a different plan in each square and after harvesting you plant a different type of plan in that square.

You can learn more at http://www.squarefootgardening.org/.