The Herb Garden

This week, I put my thyme and basil seedlings in the herb garden.  As I know how much rabbits love basil, I put a little fence around it immediately.  To no avail.  Something got in and ate one of the basil plants.  Could it be a bird?  I check around the fence for openings and piled more bricks around the base.  Anyway, I am very pleased with both the thyme and the basil. 

I also purchased a rosemary plant at the Wisteriahurst Plant Sale. I have read that it is very difficult to start rosemary from seed and it's better off to just buy a plant.  This plant cost $3.00.  Much better to part with the 3 bucks then to waste so much time trying to grow something difficult.

As you can see from the above photo, the parsley is taking off!  I planted this last year, and as it is a biennial, it's back for its second year.  It looks like it's going to go to seed soon.  I may try to save some of these seeds and see what they do. 

I need to hurry up and actually cook something with this stuff!  I should also dry some and make some parsley pesto.

Everything's Growing!

I have been so busy these days, but I spend as much time in my garden as I can.  My two biggest regrets are that I have not had the time to prune my fruit trees, or blueberry bushes, and I still haven't done anything about protecting them.  I have been spending what little free time I have starting seeds, pruning, cleaning up the yard and amending the soil.  Here are some pictures of what's going on around here:

My thyme seedlings have developed their first set of true leaves, so I thinned them out by using tiny scissors to cut out any extras, and then I transplanted them into newspaper pots that I made:

How tiny these plants are!  I can't wait to smell these leaves this summer!  Hey!  I just noticed that the "cup" has "for His Kingdom" printed on it, upside down! The other has the words "Christian" and "philosophy" on it.  It's thyme for His Kingdom!

I planted 2 kinds of cucumbers, 2 kinds of marigolds, some zinnias and bachelor's buttons on the 17th - the cucumbers began to sprout after 1 day; everything else is sprouting today (19th):





 

I hung up a new light in my basement, since I was running out of room with my other 2 lights.  I calculated that I have about 250 little plants growing down there! So, I needed another light.  I learned in my WMMGA class that you don't have to buy special, expensive lights.  I bought a shop light for $20 and 2 T5 fluorescent bulbs.  I couldn't insert the bulbs at first, and ended up going back to Home Depot where a saleswoman showed me how. I then bought 4-foot chains to hang the lamp from the ceiling, so I can adjust it as the plants grow.  The chains that the light came with were only a few inches long:

 





Outdoors, things are popping up all over the place!  All the daffodil bulbs that Jamie planted are coming up:

 

 



Sadly, Jamie and I are going to have this tree taken down in November.  The kids grew up swinging from its branches.

Also, I see signs of peonies, bleeding hearts, chives, foxglove, forsythia and apple blossoms, plus tiny blue flowers that I don't know the name of:

And of course, the weeds are here:

 

 

Well, I guess these are "winter annuals"!  James asked, "Mom, what are all these tiny white flowers?"  I said, "Weeds". "What are weeds?"  "Plants that are growing where you don't want them to grow."  James felt sorry for the weeds.

 

A few weeks ago, the end of March, I planted lettuce, spinach and green onions in with the garlic:

 

 

 

The garlic is taking off:

 

 

 

And of course, there's Shadow.  He thinks it's his garden.  The neighbor's dog, Abby, thinks it's her garden, too.  I had to chase her out the other day, because she was rolling around in the manure I put down.  Sheesh! I have a hard enough time with the deer and the rabbits, never mind a dachshund!

 

Speaking of pests, notice how there are no fences in any of these pictures.  I had a "fence guy" come out this week to look at the yard.  Still don't know how we're going to fence it all in.



Sowing Eggplant, Thyme, Marigold, and Pepper Seeds

I started some new plants today, and I found it was super-easy because I purchased a couple of "greenhouses".  These include the tray, a clear plastic "greenhouse dome" and 36 pellets (or "plugs").  For only $5.00 apiece at Ocean State Job Lot, this seems like the way to go!

So easy!  I filled 2 trays with warm water until the pellets expanded into little pots with soil.  Then I put a seed or two into each one, covered with a little peat moss, put on the dome and finished!  I didn't forget to label the trays, so I won't forget which plants are growing in which tray.  Then, I placed them on the heating pads in my bedroom.  And, I won't forget to take the domes off and give the plants light as soon as they begin to emerge!

What I'm growing: 

• German Winter Thyme:  14-21 days to germinate (this took 3 days with heat)
• Eggplant, "Galine" (this took 5 days with heat)
• Marigold, "Snowball":  7-14 days to germinate (this took 2 days with heat)
• Pepper, "California Wonder":  10-21 days to germinate (beginning after 7 days, but slow)

These are the thyme sees, after just 3 days.

April 7 - These thyme seedlings are now a week old, and still tiny-tiny.  I wonder how I'm supposed to thin them and transplant them, as they seem so small and delicate.  I wonder if I should have sprouted them in wet paper towels first, and then transplanted each one in its own, separate pot?  Maybe I'll try that next time.

Here are my eggplant seedlings after 7 days.  They look pretty good: