Time-Lapse time!

Let's watch a time lapse of some beans!

I have tomato sprouts!!

Let's start off with saying, I made dinner tonight. Polish Lasagna and buttered bread with flaked sea salt. You'll see those pictures below in the slide show.

So, I'm one of those hovering people when they start their seeds. I'm fascinated by watching them start off, and this year since I'm doing a "test" of different mixes of Peat Moss and Vermiculite, its even more important that I at least pay attention. So far, the 50/50 mix is doing the best, but, it is also full of nothing but pole beans. If you don't know, beans have to be one of the easiest things to start.

1. Hole - Dig
2. Put bean in hole
3. Cover with a little dirt
4. Dampen Soil
5. Watch grow

It is really is that easy. It does need a little bit of light, but they really aren't hard to grow. Love em to grow, not fond of them to eat. Odd isn't it?

I took pictures of my babies that I saw today. I about did the excited girl squeal when I saw them. I think the big thing that helped is that I got my heating mat today for my table. There were no sprouts today in the tomato/pepper tray, and at about 12:30 am this morning, as I was getting ready to put a little bit of Vermiculite in that particular tray, I saw em. So pretty and precious. They're ones that I haven't started from seed before so that is why I was super excited.

I also took pictures of my giant calico bean, and when they say giant, they mean giant. I'll have to start those next year right away in their own bigger pot and hope they don't get transplant shock, or just wait and direct sow them. If the soil is at least somewhat warm, they'll sprout. Maybe I'll make that a test for next year. I'll grow beans side by side in two squares and compare direct sown with transplants. I'll be doing a similar thing with carrots this year. You can read that -+-here-+-. I ordered my carrots and hopefully I can get the French seeds.

Check it out! I'm really wanting to set up a time lapse camera to truly watch everything. My mac daddy camera isn't set up to do that though and I don't think my wee little one is either. I'll have to do a little bit of research on that. I'll have to choose just one seed flat to start with and have that be my "go to" for that year. My research project if you will. It would be a nice goal, but I think everyone who is a hobby gardener if you will, knows that keeping notes gets old.

Well, I'm getting tired. I'm going to call it a night.

Green Grape Tomato

Black Pear Tomato

Plum Lemon Tomato - Not pictured (over excited)

Chocolate Cherry Tomato

再見！

A small update

Well it's taken me awhile to get these pictures up, mainly because I gave up on using You Tube. They keep pissing me off, so I'm sticking with Picasa. It works with blogger, so that's all I can hope for. My videos won't be as interesting, but at least they'll be UP. Below is my pictures. I added the photo which lists everything I bought. It seemed fitting.

I'll edit this post later (maybe) with information of where I bought, what I bought, and what I planted. I'll work on getting a google spreadsheet uploaded.

Ciao!

Getting all this for next to nothing... Priceless

I know the picture is hard to see, but if you click on it and open it in a new window you'll see it a lot better. I took this a few days ago, I was going to wait and post it with a whole bunch of other pictures and just do a video. I'll probably still do that, but I've been itching to post this.

This is going to be the bulk of my seed starting supplies this year. I was quite proud of myself. It's a mish mosh of things because I'm planning on doing transplanting into bigger things, but also because I want to see which is going to work best for what I'm wanting to do. I've decided to not buy the bulk of the plants I want but to use the seeds I already own. I bought them for a reason, and gosh darn it I'm going to do it and if they fail THEN I'll buy the plants I need. Either way, it's still cheaper than buying all the produce in the grocery store.

So here's my plan. I'm going to make some seed starting things on my own. I have a few shot glasses so I think if I can use the concept of the seed blocks, I should be okay, and be able to get them started and then transplant them to the disposable plastic cups, and then from there transplant them to the different sized containers I have. My biggest thing is the tomatoes, hence the big buckets. I'm determined to get the ones I'm most concerned about the biggest chance.

I still have to add the draining holes and air pruning slots to them, then wash them to make sure they're clean, then dry, and get the rest of my seed starting supplies together. My goal for tomorrow is to finish up the laundry and make myself a spot in the garage tomorrow cleared a way for the project, and get it set up. I still have to buy the soil to do my seedlings, but I can get that on Friday, and I'll have to because I'm broke.

So then on Wednesday I'm planning on doing the dirty work of getting the containers prepped, getting my buffet table set up in the dinning room with my grow light, setting out my baking trays (they're so I can have a little bit of water for the "self watering" feature), washing all the containers, and getting the seeds together that I'm going to plant. That will be exciting to finally get them all off my coffee table. When all of this is done I'll be a happy camper.

Thursday is my day off, Friday I'll go out and buy the seed starting mix and start filling up my containers as well as making my little seedling starters, Saturday will be the day when everything begins and the day when I'll really start my progress! I have to say I'm super excited.

I will try my hardest to take pictures of everything while I do it for documentation. Let's face, a picture can sometimes better explain things. I probably won't do another post until at least Thursday, though I hope to do a post on Wednesday with my "shopping list" of things I'm going to be getting to expand my garden.

Til the next post . . . Arrivederci!

A Dinner Delight (Yesterday)

Well my pictures posted backwards so we'll start with desert first. People say you should anyways. This is my concoction of chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, and some chocolate cereal with marshmallows. It is SO good. I don't eat it all the time, but when I do I scarf it down.

Who can go wrong with bread warmed in the oven? No one I say. I felt obligated to add some bread to the meal since the hubby usually makes fun of me for not doing it. I'm not from the south, I'm from the north, bread wasn't a staple on the table with meals. I tell him he knows where the bread is. This meal though, I delivered.

This is the pretzel bread crumbs I made to top my roasted garlic. We had one of those huge plastic things with pretzels that were way to salty for either of us. I didn't just want to throw them out, so I grab a few, pounded them a lot, threw them in a pot with a teaspoon of butter and a teaspoon of olive oil and browned them away. I have to say, I might be doing more pretzel bread crumbs, it was sooooo good.

Ahh, the roasted cauliflower that I ate the heck out of. I partially boiled it in some water (unsalted because I forgot), once it was about half way done, I drained it, threw it on a baking pan sprayed with corn oil spray with a sprinkling of salt. I threw the cauliflower on the pan, gave it a toss and roasted for about 10 minutes. It didn't have to cook long, just enough to get the water off and get a little brown. It was very good. I almost liked it more than the main meal.

Tada! The main course. Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole. I scaled it down to 6 servings, mixed swiss and mild while cheddar, didn't use the mushrooms, and used 3 chicken thighs that I boiled in a water, white wine, and red onion liquid. It still needed something, and what I think it needs is a garlic crouton bottom and some grated onion mixed in with the sour cream and and cream of chicken mix. It just seemed to lack a few things and I think those changes would help. I was worried that it wasn't all going to fit in the pan but there was plenty of room.

Tonight for dinner was frozen pizza, so no pictures, nothing special. I'll have to check what I want to make tomorrow for dinner, if anything. I might just go and get something since the hubby has to work tomorrow night. Lame.

Ciao!

Some Pictures & Updates

I finally took some pictures and decided to upload. No time like to now to start on the whole keeping up with the blog this year thing. I'll go through and explain the pictures. I guess I'll put the explanation under the pictures.

This is all the seeds I could find. I'm still missing one packet, not sure where they are but I do need them for this hanging thing I have.

This is a hanging tomato planter that I got last year that I completely forgot I bought. Why? Because I bought it when it was clearanced so it was well past the time to start the seeds that came with it. I remember taking the seed packets out to look at them but they didn't make it into my stock of seeds, so I'm hoping that they ended up on the floor in the closet. Otherwise, I'm going to just pick a new seed to start and try in there. The picture above is the whole setup.

This picture just shoes the container itself. The two holes are plugged right now so you can grow the seedlings without the dirt spilling out. These holes become the watering holes. You're suppose to plant three seedlings in this thing. Seems a bit much to me, but I'm willing to give it a try with three if I can find that darn seed packet. If not, I'm sticking to just one hole.

This is a bag o' mini onions that I picked up from Lowe's the other day when the hubby and I went to go check out some stuff. It was only $2.00 so it was hard to pass up. The growing instructions are as lame as you can get, but I guess I'll try it either way. They will however be a spring planting. I doubt they will last 'til fall.

These are the potatoes that the hubby wouldn't let me leave without. I didn't put up much of a fight admitingly (sp), as I do want to grow potatoes, I just don't have the means to do it just yet. The instructions are pretty lame too. I'll have to research how to plant these, they are themselves mini taters.

So all in all, it has begun. I've updated The seeds I own link on the right, the ones highlighted in purple are the ones I am willing to trade/give away. The number in the far right column is the number of seeds you will get. If you need more, just ask and we'll see what we can work out. The links on the right will be updated after this is posted with a few new sites. In my last post for some reason my in post links never posted. I'll have to go back and modify that.

On another note, my planning in general is in full swing. In the next post I'll share links to the products I'm planning on buying. Well most links. I don't want to over load with a bunch of hyperlinks, but I will try to include the names of everything. I'm still working out my plan with my new set up, and I'm still 16 squares short of product, so I'm thinking that the onions will definitely be a few squares. But here I go on telling everything so I don't have to do another post. What fun is that?

When life throws you lemons, throw rocks back and laugh.

Ohmagosh, I have pictures!

Upper left, cauliflower cheese soup. It was good but thicker than I wanted. I will be using this recipe again.

Upper right, bratwurst boiling away in water and beer. I do this so they can be cooked mostly through and then get their color on the grill without burning them.

Lower left, hubby's steak burger. It's about an inch and a half thick and truly tastes like a steak when it's cooked. It's really good.

Lower middle, the cooked brats and burger with the addition of turkey dogs at hubby's request.

Lower right, ore-ida french fries. There are just something that I wont skimp on and french fries are one of them, these just always turn out the best.

That's all you get! Ciao!