Wednesday, May 31, 2006

in the beginning...

this is a picture of my plants started by seed around my birthday, april 5th. this was taken in the beginning of may. we had a funny month of weather, and early may had some beautiful days but really cold nights. so they were kept on an old small table in our office (much to my husbands dismay) in front of a south facing window. the tall ones are mammoth sweetpeas with moonflower in the front, and stevia nearest the window. cherry tomato plants on the right, and basil on the left.


this is a picture of my cherry tomato plants newly transplanted into 3" pots on may 19th. too many plants and too little pots so they had to go 2-3 seedlings per pot. they are actually doing quite well even though it seems a bit crowded. and they have transplanted into the garden nicely.





i was having so much fun with gardening (i always take on a project in FULL) that i decided to start the following from seed using uncle toms method (these are basil sprouts done by the method) for zinnias, sunflowers (teddybear, aztec gold, chianti, kidstuff, italian white), nasturtium, calendula. i also had a ton of seeds left over from the seed trays so i ended up germinating the remainder of the basil, and hot pepper, cilantro, green zebra tomatoes (which did not take at all in the seed trays).




so again, my husband just had to laugh when our house was speckled with a million little dixie cups with seedlings growing happily in them. this is one of two flats of zinnias-"burpeana" and "cut and come again"

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

what i have growing in my michigan yard

FROM SEED:
cherry tomatoes; green zebra tomatoes; brandywine tomatoes; hot pepper mix; sweet basil; cilantro; stevia; aztec sunflowers; dwarf teddy bear sunflowers; chianti; sunflowers; italian white sunflowers; kid stuff sunflowers; zinnias; calendula; nasturtium; portulaca (yes i know its a desert plant but i'm determined to grow it here)

SEEDLINGS I BOUGHT:
italian parsley; lemon thyme; english thyme; rosemary; white peony (not doing so well); hydrangea (small, thought it was a goner, but getting pink blooms)

pics to come soon...as soon as i find my camera...
hopefully then someone can help me figure what is wrong with my poor peonies

so far so good....

not to jinx myself, but i've grown some darn beautiful seedlings from seed. a funny thought since usually when i do this....NOTHING survives. or they get totally small fruits.
i tried a new method i found on uncle toms garden taking me back to grade school, where you germinate seeds between wet paper towels until they sprout, then planting. true to form and blog, i had HUNDREDS of plants growing out of my ears. i am actually giving them away since i do not have room enough to plant all of them in my little city garden.

so this year...

so this year i have made some resolutions for my garden.

1. experimenting. i'm going to experiment with new methods, new plants, and new beds.
2. i like to plant where i like plants, not necessarily where they will do the best....so we will see if black thumb comes a runnin'
3. go as organic and i can muster, not knowing anything about orgnanic gardening. or gardening for that matter.