Tag Archives: direct seeding

Tammy Appleseed

I LOOOOVE SPRING!  It seems as if you can just throw seeds in a pot and they just grow and blossom with very little effort.  Remember the potato pots I started..

Yukon Gold

red potatoes

Well, here they are now……

red potatoes

Yukon Gold

Isn’t that amazing!  I hope I get some potatoes out of these.  I should be able to harvest around  June or whenever the tops start to turn yellow and die down.

I also planted some lettuce seeds in a wooden box I found in the garage.

I believe my son made this in woodshop several years ago.  (Hope he doesn’t want it back.)  It is perfect, because it has handles which will allow me to move it around when the sun begins to heat up.

That was a about a week ago.  Here they are now…

I also have beans coming up – speckled butter beans, Maxibel Haricot Vert beans and pinto beans!!!

These are the pinto beans.

These are the Maxibel Hericot Vert.

These around the round trellis are speckled butter beans.

and purple hull peas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My pepper plants are starting to grow.  These are anaheim.

My pumpkin seeds have sprouted, too.

Hoping they will climb UP the trellis.  Inside the teepee I planted Tom Thumb lettuces.  They are miniature bibb lettuces about the size of a baseball.  Don’t look too hard, they haven’t sprouted yet, hehe.

Here are the rest of peppers to put out:  some are bell peppers others more anaheim and jalapeno.

Last but not least are the tomato plants.

I have Porter planted here and a basil in front (it looks lime green but it was just the way the light was shining, it’s actually fairly green).  I also have San Marzano, Arkansas Traveler and Rio Grande in quart pots I need to put out. oy.  But, would you get a load of my peonies!  This is the prettiest they have ever been.

Tammy Appleseed is now resting.

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It’s Seedy.

 This year I just couldn’t seem to figure out what I wanted to plant.  So I got out all my seeds (this is no small task even in the short three seasons I have gardened veggies) and began to test the seeds for viability.   I then decided I had better get started with sowing seeds which will need a few weeks to get started.   So here is what I already have: 

  • Lemon cucumber
  • Dark Green Zucchini squash
  • Cucumbers (A & C and De Bourbonne)  I have recently read on multiple sites that the A&C are bitter.  They did not do well for me last year but I am going to use up my seed and possibly have better luck.
  • Carrots (Romeo round baby carrots and a freebie St. Valery Carrot)  I have had ZERO luck with carrots.  I am going to plant them in a pot this year.
  • Lettuces – Mignonette Bronze, Tom Thumb two pkgs. of this one – oops, Little Gem, and a freebie Garden Heirloom Blend
  • Herbs – Italian flat leaf parsley, Garden Cress, marjoram, Dill, Genovese Basil
  • Wando peas
  • Sugar Ann snow peas  (These two peas are going in the ground very soon) ( As in when it quits raining.  Yep, here we go again.)

 All of these seeds above can be direct seeded into the soil.  I have also decided which seeds to order for planting this year and which will be transplants.  Please repeat after me:

“I am still a real gardener even if I don’t grow all my plants from seed. “

I was amazed last year at how many of the plants I grew from seed were readily available in local nurseries.  So, I thought this year, I would take advantage of these and purchase only seeds to be direct seeded or those I would be unable to find in a transplant or those I couldn’t help myself from buying.    

But, FINALLY, here’s the list of seeds I ordered.

  • Maxibel Haricot Vert Bean
  • Pinto Bean
  • Florida Speckled Butter Bean
  • Pepperoncini Pepper
  • Jack Be Little Pumpkin
  • Pinkeye/Purple Hull Pea
  • Arkansas Traveler Tomato
  • Porter Tomato
  • San Marzano Tomato

 I also want to plant some onions and potatoes (more on that later).  The Jack Be Little pumpkins I am going to plant using a teepee. I am also going to use a teepee for some of the beans.  I must BE Jack in the Beanstalk as I have nowhere to go but up.

I sowed some Porter tomato seeds which I had, a few bell pepper seeds, some Chinese blue delphiniums and coleus.  I will be buying my pepper plants, hot and sweet instead of sowing the seeds this year.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to  GET ORGANIZED.  No matter that this is my  number one resolution every  year.  But this year I will have help.  My sister and niece made me this very cute box to hold my seed packets. 

 

Thanks, Lori and Britney.  I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

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Eeny Meeny Miny Mo?

Would you believe All the seeds  I planted less than a week ago have germinated? I was truly amazed.  Now I need to thin the cucumber plants.  How do I decide which will stay and which will go?   I find this stressful. 

My lettuce seeds are coming up nicely.  I managed to sow them in a fairly even manner. IMG_0357

Can’t say that for the basil seeds. IMG_0358

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I really must stop taking that glass of wine out into the garden.  But, seriously I do sow my basil thick like this and have found that it works really well.  And like I said before, I am not very good at thinning. 

So, here are my cucumber seeds that I have to decide who will stay….IMG_0367

IMG_0361

IMG_0365

…and who will go.  Eeny Meeny Miny Mo….

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Trying to Beat the Storm

I worked 8:30-5:30 on Friday and hurried home (if you can call sitting in traffic for an hour+ “hurrying”) to make preparation to plant SEEDS, for which I am already late.   But, what to do?  It has rained literally every day or  was so wet it may as well have.   So much so,  I have not been able to get out in the garden.  And another storm was coming.

I stopped by the local hardware/garden store and picked up two 6ft. tall bamboo poles for my trellis; they were perfect.  This is the nylon trellis I ordered back in Jan.? and didn’t get until it was too late for my peas, so I am using it for cucumbers. 

IMG_0325

 So Friday evening I am out in the garden, erecting this trellis in the waning light.  Just me and the mosquitos. Yeah, they’re baaack.

Luckily, Saturday turned out to be rain free.  So I was able to plant my cucumber seeds.  I planted A&C pickling  and De Bourbonne.  I had googled planting cucumber seeds and found a very informative site from Texas A&M.  Their suggestion was to plant on little “hills” and place about four seeds on a “hill”.  So I have two “hills” for each variety.  I don’t know if you can see the little “hills” very well in this photo, but they are there for now.  Hopefully they won’t be washed away.  The article stated that cucumbers need well-drained soil.IMG_0330

I also planted my basil seeds in the bed where I took out the peas and parsley.  I will also plant purple hull peas there soon.  I planted three types of lettuce in a large pot so I can move it to shade in the afternoons if needed (petite rouge, little gem, and mignonette bronze).  I don’t know why I am just now planting lettuce.  I had originally planned to plant in a bed but had to change to a pot.  If I had realized I would be planting in a container, I could be eating lettuce by now.  Oh, well.

My tomato and pepper plants  have blooms on them.

porter tomato

porter tomato

pepper

pepper

And one even has a tiny pepper.

jalapeno pepper

jalapeno pepper

 Very exciting!

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