Week Five

Yesterday, I let my plants get some sun on top of my car. They seemed to do pretty well. This time outside helps them start to acclimate to outside conditions like wind and sun. Some leaves got spots but I think this may be because I watered them and got water on some leaves. They came back in around 6pm. They need to acclimate more, but they won't go in the ground until the end of May so they have some time.

Week Four

Everything is doing well! I did a head count and right now I have 6 eggplant, 10 habaneros, and 11 banana peppers. In the other room I have 11 roma tomatoes growing. I also started turnips, radishes, carrots, and two types of lettuce out on the balcony. They can tolerate colder temperatures, so they're just out there until the community garden opens.

In other news, check out this prosciutto, goat cheese, and arugula flat bread we made Sunday night!

Week Three

I couldn't leave those romas out of the growlight! It was breaking my heart and today it's supposed to rain all day so I found some room for them.

Week Two

It's only been 2 weeks, but everything has germinated and well on its way to growing its first set of real leaves. I transplanted the Roma tomatoes because they were growing very fast, but more so because I planted 2 seeds per block and every seed came up. I wanted to separate them before they grew together too much. I managed to save almost all of them, except 2 because I didn't have enough transplant pots. The other seeds I'll separate soon, but they're not as far along so I don't want to disturb them.

Someone recently asked me why I use a grow light. This question took me off guard because wasn't it obvious? I guess not. For starters, seedlings need a lot of light. Day lengths are longer in June and July than our days are now. Plus, some days it's overcast, which for a grown plant is fine, but for a seedling it could make it grow stringy and reach for any little light it finds. And here it tends to be overcast a lot. Finally, it's because they're indoors. They can't get the same amount of sun they'd get if they were outside. Combined with the shorter days it leaves too much opportunity for week seedlings.

Here are the seedlings today and the Romas which now have to deal with natural light. Because they're more mature plants, I'm hoping it's ok.

Week One

So far so good. The Roma tomatoes came up first, but the others take a little longer (about 10-14 days). They might be getting a little bit moldy, but once they all come up I'll take the dome off and let them air out a little. Hopefully that will help.

My 2013 Garden!

Last year's garden theme was quantity-lots of tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers, but when I looked around I wasn't growing anything that interesting. This year's theme is diversity! So I'd like to plant different varieties of different vegetables. I'd still like to have an abundance, but with our relocation this year, I'll be working with a smaller plot than last year (last year was 10'x20', this year will be 6'x12', oy). I'm also not going to be as organized with the planning this year because, as last year proved, the best laid plans often go astray so I'm going to roll with it.

So this year, I still did my garden plan, but it will probably need revising and improvising as I see what takes off and what mood I'm in come planting time. I used www.gardeners.com. They have a great kitchen garden planner and best of all, it's free! I highly recommend it. It helps lay out spacing and gives tips on each plant.

Last night, I started habanero peppers (the holy-crap-hot peppers), banana peppers (the yum-these-are-good-on-sandwiches-or-pickled peppers), eggplant (the I'm-planting-these-for-Morgan-because-he's-been-telling-me-he-wants-to-make-his-grandmother's-Tunisian-stuffed-eggplant-recipe-and-last-year-yielded-almost-no-eggplant eggplant), and Roma tomatoes (the sauce tomatoes)!

I started 8 of each using my soil blocker. I put 2 seeds in each block. We'll see what happens. They are in a plastic gardening flat on a warm seed starting mat and will be under a grow light once they come up. All of these vegetables need at least 8 weeks indoors and some repotting eventually. Let's call these my "high maintenance" vegetables.

In the beginning of May, I'll start my low maintenance/direct seed vegetables (squash, beans, lettuce, carrots, whatever else strikes my fancy between now and then), but I don't direct seed much because I haven't had a lot of luck with direct seeding. I usually start them all indoors for 2-3 weeks. It helps me space out my garden better and helps me differentiate between weeds and vegetable plants in the beginning.

Here are some pictures of the soil blocks. I also keep them under a greenhouse to keep their humidity levels up. These types of seeds like warm and humid, so I oblige.

And lastly, my garden plan. Like I said above, it's just an idea. It'll probably change, but it lets me see how far apart everything should be planted and how many (approximately) I can fit.

Spring is almost here!

Correction: Spring is technically here! Summer is almost here!

Windowsill Looseleaf lettuce

It worked. It needs another few weeks and it's not much, but it's nice to know it's possible.

It's also almost time to start my spring seedlings. Remember last year I mentioned it's important to identify what to plant, how much, and when. Next post I will talk more about what I'm planting this year. The early plants are definitely tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. They need at least 8 weeks indoors and can't be planted out until the middle to end of May, so they're about ready to get started.