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!

Well I almost did...

I thought long and hard about posting dinner, but just wasn't in the mood. Go figure. So I'll do a gardening update instead.

I've FINALLY been going through all my seed catalogs to see if there was anything I wanted to change, and the funny thing is, that most of the things I'm going to be ordering from, they don't even have catalogs. Of course this is only if we get a good haul back from tax time, and the hubby's preliminary doing seems to have us getting a very nice haul back. So I'm just going to continue on planning.

So this is what I've been planning. This is about half the size of what I was wanting to do last year, and this year as well. But I'm more concerned about doing it slow now. I'll get everything I want to grow eventually. All the tomato plants I'm going buy between two places.

This place has all their plants at the same price, the down side is that you have order 12 or more plants. I was so concerned about tomato plants that I didn't honestly even think about pepper plants, well duh, that's kind of what they sell. So, while I already have all the seeds I need for all the tomatoes and peppers, I'm just not in the mood to get those to grow from seed.

This other place is as close to local as I can get right now. I love that they have honest pictures of their actual harvest of the what the tomatoes look like. The downside (and there are a few) is that they don't always have the same plants in stock and their plants cost $6 each. This includes shipping but that's still almost $3 per plant. The other place charges $11 for 12 plants. You do the math. However, I'm willing to purchase 6 plants from them to see how well they are.

I'm going to concentrate on growing my beans from seed, I did it last year and had good results, and if they don't seem to be turning out, I'll just direct sow them and take a late hit on them growing. I'm planning on trying 4 types of corn this year too. I've never grown corn and the varieties I picked grow shorter, but they all have to be direct sown. I'm really going to try and keep records this year of everything and actually take pictures for a change.

I'm going to start seedlings on Feb 5th and start them a few different ways. I might still start some other plants as well, but I'm not concerned as I was last year. If something doesn't work out, I'll just go out and buy the plants that I need or start over and do a fall harvest on beans instead. The corn will be a slight disappointment, but we'll see if that happens.

I already own all the bean seeds, corn, and other. However, all the tomatoes and peppers I decided that I was going buy this year and test some growing mediums and get use to growing my main crop plants from seed. I want to be confident and not scared. So I'll bite the cost bullet this year, but after this year I want to start saving my own seeds and doing my own seedlings.

I believe that this is going to be a great year for gardening. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get an irrigation system going. I still need to post all the new supplies I get this year. Seriously, I plan on documenting everything. Maybe if I had a few followers, I'd be motivated.

Ciao!

Sunday Dinner

Leftover pizza from Papa John's. Tastes better when fresh.

So what's on the menu for tomorrow? I have soup and sammies on the menu, but I might do breakfast for dinner instead. I'm not sure, but hopefully, just hopefully, I'll blog about it.

A New Twist with the Blog

So, as part of a decision to save money and be accountable for what I'm (the household) eating, I'm going to blog about dinner meals. That's the meal that I really plan for and usually have it to go by for grocery shopping. So, here is the first, albeit lame, dinner choice.

Papa John's for dinner. Two large pizza's for $10, still cost $28 with a tip. How lame is that? I could have made my own pizza's for a fraction of the cost I'm sure, and then found a use for the leftover ingredients. Pasta salad anyone?

No need for any kind of picture, I'm sure most people have eaten Papa John's pizza. It's alright, nothing to write home about.

This is by far not my first tomato of the season, nor the second, third, or fourth. All but the big one on the left I picked just about thirty minutes ago. However, yesterday there were three big tomatoes picked and a lot of the little yellow tomatoes as well as a few of the cherry tomatoes. I am a tomato growing fool. I have no problem eating at least one a day. This isn't the best picture I know, it was taken with my cell phone, and as for what kind of tomatoes they are? Hell if I know honestly. The big one I planted but I don't know what it is, I think it's a beefsteak variety from Bonnie, but I'm not sure. The other three are from two of eight plants in the same garden. They are similar in taste and texture, so I'm not to concerned. However, the one that I know I don't care for is the "Fourth of July" tomato. It is way to mild for my taste, I prefer acidic tomatoes.

I also watered twice today. Earlier in the afternoon since it wasn't too hot yet and they really needed it, and a little while ago. Though with this watering I used some Miracle Grow on everything, and then after that, I sprayed the hell out of the plants with my Japanese Beetle "juice" that also kills other common bugs. While I was holding out as long as possible for another spray, I was forced to pull up my string beans because they were decimated. I have found the little critter that was responsible, but I have not found out what it was yet. The bug killer seemed to turn them to juice so that makes me very happy. I feel a step behind honestly though, I missed two very important points when starting, I didn't mark down WHEN I planted nor did I pay attention to the days to maturity. I also know that I can try to guesstimate, and I would probably turn out fine, but it would be nice to know at least a round about time to pick things.

My pepper plants are doing somewhat well. My Sweet Banana Pepper plants have tons of peppers on them, okay not tons but probably enough for me to make at least a pint of the pickled banana rings I buy so much of for my italian salad. My Mariachi Pepper plant has two huge peppers on it, lol, woo! That may be all I get from it in all honesty, it is one of the plants that I started from seed and didn't harden off. I'm glad it got this far. I'm going to be pulling up two tomato plants possibly. My Big Rainbow and Bonnie Big Boy. The big rainbow is one from seed and is just... pathetic, poor thing the other is the biggest plant I have, but has yet to actually produce anything, and I'm sick of putting forth the effort, it needs to go. However, my Bonnie Better Bush will be pulled within the month as well. It has two tomatoes on it, if they get ripe to pick the whole plant will be coming up. It's more or less stopped growing and has not put forth any new growth. I'm still somewhat hopeful that it might do something, but I wont hold my breath either.

So, after much thought, I have decided that, yes, you can plant eight tomato plants in a 3x3 planter. They need to be Inter's and not Deter's, and if pruned right, you should have no problem with them getting to bushy. While I'm not planning to do the same thing next year, if I had to use this same set up that I'm using now, I would now that I know what I do. I know that I have a lot more to say, but I have to get some links put up in the post and then I wouldn't be able to post again for awhile. What fun would that be?

Ciao!

June Cometh Early

I've already harvested my first three tomatoes, and about a dozen cherry tomatoes, a healthy amount of string beans, one head of romaine, a handful of blondie peas, lots of yellow cherry tomatoes, and the mosquitoes have loved me just as much. In place of the peas and lettuce I've planted some potatoes, and I've started some new bush pea plants to replace the string beans that are coming up soon. I've had to throw out two hot peppers and one sweet pepper because bugs wanted to eat the fruit, and I've had to spray them all with insecticide because of Japanese Beetles. I am not an organic gardener, you mess with my plants I will kill you dead. I always wash wash wash the veggies real good.

I've had to pull up a few taters that decided to rot, no biggie, I figured it would happen since they were SO late going into the ground. I also realize I haven't talked about my melon vine much, well, it's doing GREAT. I've been plucking off flowers since I have 3 good melons going, and a fourth that is coming now. I can't wait to try them. Thankfully they will turn yellow and have a small silver line when they are ripe. Back to the potatoes though, I seem to have some very strong suckers in there, they are starting to get fairly big, and I have some new growth coming up from a few of the smaller ones.

I have yet to go outside and pick a tomato today, but I should also be able to maybe pick a pepper as well. I am a tomato snob, as the hubby says, so I have twelve tomato plants right now, and hopefully more for next year. I'm going to be working on uploading the seeds I have on hand right now, as well as my layout of what I have growing for all to see. A picture or two might eventually make it's way up here. I think the next post I do will involve a little bit more on the learning that has ensued so far from this, which means a few more tags will pop up for easier referencing. I've been keeping those fairly simple right now, but I might go back to the last post and add a few more specific ones.

Ciao!

May Explosion

Ahh, vacation to Myrtle Beach in the beginning of the month was much needed for the Hubby, and we actually did a lot of stuff this time. It was great, Riley seemed to have enjoyed himself as well. Upon returning a few things have taken hold in the garden and have either done good or done bad.

The breakdown: I have been forced to buy at least three tomato plants (it might be four or five, but that's all I can remember right now). Some just couldn't handle the sudden shock of it all. There are still no luffa's or watermelon in the ground so I gave up completely, a Topsy Turvy has been bought as well as a yellow cherry plant, string beans, sweet peppers, romaine lettuce and a bucket of potatoes.

The bigger breakdown: The tomatoes are going ©@Z!3 (crazy). I have explosions of blossoms everywhere, and been utilizing the slight "hand shake" to pollinate them and it's worked wonders. All but one plant is doing well, my Big Rainbow is just there to fill a spot I think, there's always next year. My peas decided to hell with the world, and started new growth, unfortunately, the weather has been getting might hot so they are all but done producing now, but what I did get was really good, another learning experience. String beans are doing great and already have pods, the sweet pepper plants have their first flowers and my mariachi pepper plant from seed has mad a full recovery! The lettuce (romaine) had to be harvested, it was bitter from getting ready to bolt, the lettuce was the one thing that had me worried. I have never grown it before, so didn't know what to expect/do. However about half was saved from a bitter demise, thanks to the hubby who researched how to get rid of it.

The last breakdown: I have a lot more confidence with all of this now, and have decided that I'm going to research the fall crops I can grow and it should be fun. Also learned from carrots, they are to be direct sown outside as they do not transplant at all, same with radishes (though I didn't plant those). HUGEST thing I learned I think thus far.

Ciao!

April Preping

A somewhat slow month by our standards, but nonetheless, exciting! The planters have been put together, filled with dirt and planted! Needless to say I am super stoaked about it all, though pesimistic as well. I'm not new to gardening, I have grown tomato plants in the ground quite a few times, and even neglecting them they were mass producers. However, I am newer to the SFG method (square foot garden). My Bio-Dad had a planter where he planted tomato plants and a few pepper plants and it was almost the same method, it was just a bigger planter and in the ground. I dare say he did it on purpose, it just happened. That memory however did spark the massive search into that type of method, which has led me to the Companion Planting guide I made and among other things.

It is however quite obvious that I will be having to replace some of the tomato transplants. I did not even think (or really know for that matter) about the hardening off process. I got so excited with planting that I just planted straight from indoors to out, not all liked this process. I'm still holding off hope for the peas, though they aren't looking well, the beans are in the same boat, as well as the pepper plant, carrots, and lettuce. I still haven't gotten my tiller back from a friend and so I've had to hold off on the luffa and watermelon. My pumpkin never did germinate and I didn't grow enough beans because they didn't come in in time. But, we shall see!

Ciao!

March Madness

Well, as if February wasn't busy enough, March brought on a whole new term of stress. My Mom and Dad (step, and that's the last reference to it I shall make) came down to help with a kitchen gut job and redo. Time was short, one week to be exact, and it was even more hectic since my helper wasn't able to come over and help due to snow. So a lot of prep work didn't get done that should have, but we went through it like champs the four of us (and our helper even came over to help with painting for a few hours), and we now have a fully functional, and mold, moisture, bug free kitchen. Complete with snack bar (finally)! It's almost 100% done. We still need a tile back splash of some sort, a few more pieces of molding, caulk the tiny nail holes, and the biggest thing to get done is a new floor.

My seedlings were pretty much all but forgotten the first week in March. Without their grow light, and not being watered as it wasn't high on the to-do list. Some of them suffered, others flourished, not all sprouted. The beans and peas are huge, a melon or watermelon is trying to find it's way outside, and a few tomato plants are getting bigger and bigger every day. They are all now out of the dome, but still in the sponges, and under the light on top of the fridge where they should be. All is well so far.

Shipments have been coming in while they have been available. I seem to have misplaced an Upside Down Planter I wanted to try, I have no idea where the blasted thing is (it came during the remodel). A Garden Support Set has arrived, Garden Grids (I received two sets, lucky me!), two Raised Beds (self-watering, woot), three Self-Watering Planters, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I've even received a few of my back ordered seeds from Park Seed, but I guess Burpee just doesn't even give them to you at all. I can't wait to plant what I have, though some of my seedlings seem to be not doing so hot, we'll see what happens later.

Ciao!

Christmas in Februbary?!

You're damn right. Our friend Dustin came to visit during our Christmas in February. Why in February you might ask? Money my dear friends, money. We decided to make a trip back to Wisconsin since it had been almost two years since I've seen them. So we used our Christmas money for each other to fund the trip and used tax money (woo!) to celebrate Christmas and Valentines Day. This is actually the second time we've done this, and I have to say I prefer doing it this way.

On to the gardening aspect. I started my seedlings after Dustin left. I used Park's Double 120-cell Bio Dome to start what I could. Not all of my seeds came in on time, I had many on backorder from Park Seed as well as Burpee which I have to say I'm not to please about. I would have liked to been informed while I was in the check out process, then I could have ordered things that were in stock. I was ordering a bit late I realize, but still, keep up the website people.

I will put up a sidebar link to the seeds closer to Summertime. Why? I don't feel like listing them all here, plus, I would only like to list the seeds that I actually own. No use crying over seeds that I don't have. I will be able to start those next year, so it will all work out in the end.

Ciao!

The First Post

So, this is my first official post. Yay! I have been planning this garden for a long time now and it's finally going to happen. I've ordered all the seeds and stuff that I'm going to need to start them for the most part. I shall post more on that later. I still need to order my actual self-watering gardens and other things, but for the most part, I have everything I need, except for the soil.

But, I am tired, and I'm still futzing with this place, so I shall post more as my orders come in.

Ciao!