Marching toward April

So big news is that my landlady just gave me 80% of what used to be her garden.  She's 85 and going to be away fron mid-June to mid-August.  Apparently her grown sons lived with her for a while in the 90s and made it into a vegetable garden but she's just been doing tomatoes and flowers for a while now.  The soil needs help - I just started in with some manure and am using my coffee-grounds hookups to get myself premium nitrogen input (I've got a bag that will go in as soon as it cools off).  I'm hoping the poo and coffee combo will get this ground back into shape.

To start, some inside seed-bits all cloched up and waiting:

I've got tomatoes, brussels, eggplants, and onions in so far.

Brussels (Long Island Improved, for the record) getting their secondary leaves!

These guys just sprouted today! (they were definitely right on the edge yesterday) they're about to get moved into a brighter spot.

Basils and a Rosemary in the kitchen.

Peony a-comin' - I'm thinking about moving this inside over the weekend...it's supposed to snow, although I've seen plenty of other in-ground peonies coming up in the neighborhood, I worry about my babies.

Spinach Babies!

Chard babies!

New garden spot!  Colleen and I turned the soil at the back part already and you can see the dark area that I've amended.  The trashbag in the right corner is coffee grounds that I'm going to do another amendment with...and probably mulch a little high around the garlic sprouts in preparation for tonight's snow.  They're supposed to be planted out before the frost, but I still worry about them.

Composter all nestled in the shrub line.  You can also see the wire fence that I'm going to use as a trellis for my gherkins.

Light sprinkling of poo.  I have 3 more bags in the car.

Garlic I transplanted yesterday...not terribly gracefully, I must say.

Garden watchers.  I want two others.  I have to find my goose...so maybe I only want one more.

 

 Dirty Garden Sketch.  Really the best kind of map.  It's about 11' by 18' (not totally regular and punctuated by random tiny trees that may or may not do anything).  Starting upper left and moving clockwise there's a watermelon patch, 4 tomatoes and 2 eggplants surrounded by frilly borders of marigolds, the next rectangle is the partly amended part - garlic, bollyhocks and brussels sprouts, lettuce, spinach, onions, carrots, beets, and chard in rows followed by two cuke plants on the trellis fence.  In the upper right is the composter that I plan to partly screen with dwarf sunflowers. The rectangle full of circles is my three sisters area that will be corn, snap peas, and then two mounds of Jenny Lind Melon and three mounds of Luffa.  Next is a spot that I'm going to put two seed bombs that I have no idea what's in them, and then last (beyond the drain pipe) is the pumpkin patch.  There's going to be a row of nasturtiums between the watermelon and the pumpkin.  There's also going to be a row of Titan sunflowers behind the three sisters.

2010 Beginings

It's been in the 50s and 60s in Boston this week and so I decided to start in on gardening, also it was my birthday yesterday and there's no better way to celebrate birthdays than by doing something you love and I love gardening.

Today I started my Brussels Sprouts inside...I love a good vintage casserole dish mini-greenhouse.

(L-R) Seeds for the above, and Spinach and Chard which just got started outside.  I also started some Great Lakes Lettuce from a Buzzy Seed Starter kit.  I love that salad greens are cold hearty.

My front stoop/porch area has a pretty intricate railing set-up, so I'm going to put in three-ish different kinds of Morning Glories.  The Grandpa Otts have always come up beautifully, I just got Scarlett O'Hara yesterday, and I have seed-saved MGs from previous years that could be any combo of Grandpa/Celestial Mix or might just be Grandpa.  I have a whole bag of these and if anyone wants Morning Glory Seeds, let me know.

Flowers that may or may not go in depending on pot/"yard" space.  I've never gotten moonflowers to come up, but I'm going to try again.

Tomatoes....I'll probably do 1-2 of each plant type....and this year rather than pot marigolds in their own pots around the tomatoes, I might just put them in the very edges of the tomato pots.  I'm trying a new kind of mari, they're called French Vanilla.  I think that they're going to make the tomato plants look like giant Caprese salads.

I've had a topsy turvy for years and it's g one unused, I think this year I'm going to try to topsy-turvy these eggplants.  We'll see how it goes.

I'm going to do another root-veggies container...cheap plastic container, drill holes in the bottom, pour a bunch of dirt in it and then root it up.

So...so far:

Near to far:
Two years ago's rosemary that came up a little last year, we'll see.  Garlic (needs the cold to divide)!  Ladybird Poppies (like to be chilly before they sprout)!  A peony...yes in a container...we'll see how that goes.  Somewhat hidden in a tiny pot is the Great Lakes lettuce.  Next is a strawberry pot with home-depot bulbs in it.  I've never done strawberries...another we'll see.  Spinach in the long green container that I'm going to try to be good about succession planting.  Rainbow Chard in the second long green container. 

Left to Right:
A little Jade cutting that I started when we moved to our new place.  Rosemary (another Buzzy Grow Kit) and Basil (more of the same).

I also have had my name on the wait-list for the community garden on the Somerville Bikeway since May of '08.  I'd give myself a 75% chance that my name will come up this year (average wait time is about 2 years)...if it does then I'm going to do 3-sisters again:

Depending on pot/yard space and/or community garden plot, I also want to do these again:

I also have these two seed bombs that my friend Flo (who died in Haiti) made with some kids at a school in NH (they were brought to his memorial by the teacher for whom he led the class.  I have no idea what's in them (although I can see squash seeds in there) so I'm going to hold onto them until I have some space to account for a squash vine, which is not now.  I also like having them on my desk and look at them and think of him.

PS. I'm serious about Morning Glories:

A little progress, a little snow.

So my greenhouse is busting with little lives and I just seeded my next set-- so I thought I'd post a few pictures.


From the outside!

We found a grow light in the basement just as I was going to buy one - which was nice. A few weeks ago I put in tomatoes, brussels sprouts, onions, and broccoli as well as pansies. I also had to resuscitate my rosemary which was doing fine until about 3 weeks ago.

At first I was a bad plant mom and the grow light would be on for days and off for days-- but I got a timer from home depot this week and so the kids are getting 12 hours of light every day from 6am to 6pm. I plan to up the time soon.

Today I seeded in eggplant, cucumbers, balloon flowers, and marigolds. I put geraniums and dahlia tubers in pots. I also put garlic, daffodils, and spinach outside...oh and a clematis vine. I wasn't going to buy a clematis but there was a whole shelf of them and they were in this little phalanx and one right in the middle had sprouted this feisty little vine. It won me over.

I don't have any pics of the outside plants - but here's a little tour of the greenhouse:



In the front are marigolds that I just put in today. I think I might pot the spares and put them out as decorations for the bridal shower if they're big enough...6 weeks? That should give them time to be a little bushy. To the left are the brussels sprouts. The big tin pot is the sad rosemary. In the back are the tomatoes-- I really want to grow them upside down. I registered for the tomato upside down hanging things and I have my fingers crossed that those arrive at the bridal shower. The two little 4-tops in the middle are the cukes and eggplant. Just in today.



That's still the tomatoes at the back, marigolds in the front and you can see the cucumber 4-top. The set of 6 beside it has more pansies in as does the 4-top to the right behind it. The other two 4-packs are basil and broccoli. The random singles in there are miracle fruit seedlings that haven't done a whole lot yet.



2nd shelf-- my baby lime tree is at the back. I need to repot it this week. In the middle is my supermarket rose bush that lived in the garage all winter and is starting to bud. There are sprouted onions at the back and balloon flowers up front.



This is the somewhat boring shelf- the two little pots are dwarf bedding dahlias and the big pot is the geranium. We'll see how these go.

This is my boring back yard:



There's snow in this picture-- we had a random flurry today. It's hard to see.

The landlady says that the gardeners "don't speak much English" and "whip through there with the mower" so to be careful about that. I plan on making clearly marked guerilla garden installations. So far I have hidden spare dahlia tubers in what I hope to be a safe place. I have clearly marked the clematis vine below the porch railing (not shown). I also plan on putting some titan sunflowers along the garage. I have to get a few more seeds, there are only 5 left in my packet from last year and I can't find the ones I saved. Square one.

Mini Greenhouse

So both my seeds and my mini-greenhouse arrived today. I'm really excited about it. I wanted to try to start seeds without lights, but the more I think about it, the more I think I might need at least one light. Because the greenhouse is the approx shape and size of a bookcase, I feel like it'll get light well in the top of it, but not the bottom. I'm going to set it up and we'll see.

I'm also working on the theory of having a greenhouse. I think what it means is that I can start seeds a month earlier in the house...and then I can move them out in the greenhouse when I normally would have started them in the house. Because my garden is all in containers, I can get an healthy seedling of all but my root crops pretty easily and hopefully sustain them until they can be outside for real (which is May first in these parts). I also read somewhere about putting a solar shower bag on the bottom shelf so that it heats up during the day and provides a little extra heat at night for those cold April nights.

We'll see how it goes.

Also, I may or may not have just purchased miracle fruit seedlings on ebay. No comment.