A plant update!

Well, since I wrote last week my garlic cloves have just exploded. Just look at this!

 You may remember these on Feb. 19, a day or so after being planted.

 Here they are on Feb. 21.

 Here is Feb. 22 (with a flash, for some reason).

 On Feb. 24...

 

And this morning (Feb. 26)...

I've never done anything more with sprouting garlic than smash it and remove the inside stem in order to use the clove for cooking. It's amazing how quickly these are growing. I've mostly been watering them by pouring water into the styrofoam tray for the pots and dirt to soak up (I have a theory this may lead to deeper roots, which is good for Texas plants).

This cold snap we're going through needs to hurry up and finish so I can move these babies outside. They're not going to stay comfortable in these tiny peat pots very long.

I also transplanted my carrot tops and bell pepper seeds yesterday. Of the original 15 seeds I germinated...

 You may remember this picture from Feb. 19.

... a round dozen of them developed roots. When I noticed two trying to stand up on Sunday, I figured it was time to move them from the nursery to individual rooms (in an egg carton).

The carrots got first dibs because I noticed their greenery starting to wilt; water on a paper towel wasn't enough anymore, I thought.

Because of the carrot tops, I had two seeds without egg slots, so they get to bunk together in an old applesauce cup, seen on the left. It was also kind of strategic: one seed, seen on the top right in the germination photo, was surrounded by yellow. I'm hoping it came from a yellow pepper, so I put it in the cup with a "Y" near it so I can keep an eye on how it grows (because it's really hard to tell the rest apart as I've moved them).

There was an issue with the cardboard egg carton absorbing the water before the soil could. I could have moved to the styrofoam carton I had, but I'd been saving eggshells for compost already, and remembered something from Pinterest about planting seedlings in eggshells (supposedly the whole thing can be planted, and the calcium in the shells is good for plants). So I spooned the dirt from the carton into (clean) eggshell halves and planted the seeds inside, using the end of a chopstick to make the hole.

Now we just wait to see who thrives in the dirt. The carrots I'm not really banking anything on, they're more of an experiment really, but I'm excited to see how the garlic and bell peppers turn out.

Brian and I got some radish and pumpkin seeds at Home Depot last week. I'm going to do it: I'm going to try growing my own pie pumpkins. They seem to be pretty fast growers (the packet says they take about 90 days), so I'm debating between planting late so they're ready in fall, or just planting early and harvesting/prepping/freezing as needed until it's pumpkin pie season. I just hope they leave some room in my tiny bed for peppers too. :-D

Gardening Season!

In an effort to increase the positivity of my posts, I'm writing today about something I get really excited about: gardening.

Last weekend, Brian built me a raised garden bed for Valentine's Day. While everyone else was posting pictures of the flowers and chocolate they got, I got to share this:

Note Acer's adoring expression toward Brian. He always looks at him that way.

He worked the better part of six hours to build it for me. I helped hold some boards in place, hammered a few nails and scrounged up some of the bricks, but in all honesty he did most of the heavy lifting. On the plus side, my grandad's hammer got some use in putting the sucker together, which made me happy. 

We dug a small trench to place the walls in, and layered some unfolded trash bags on the bottom to keep grass/weeds from creeping up. I also threw in some old, rotting wood near the bottom (I'd read a little about hugelkultur, and wanted to at least make a little effort toward it). We chose to put it against the back fence to avoid building a fourth wall, but built a small wall of bricks to keep the dirt from laying against that wood (and possibly rotting it, because we want our neighbors to not hate us).

Now it's not huge at only six-by-three feet, but I didn't want something huge for my first in-ground, weed-pulling, pest-deterring, varmint-chasing, heat-fighting gardening venture. All of my past dabbles with plants have been in containers (thank you, apartment living), which I'm not abandoning.

 Between Brian's grandma and me, we could grow a small truckload of stuff in pots (this is just a few from the back porch)

I plan to keep flowers and vine/spreading-type plants in containers. I have one sweet potato vine I planted last year in a big pot indoors right now, and two small starters that I cut off some potatoes last night. Vines are romantic plants to me, and I love to see them trailing down from hanging baskets, so that's where I'm going to put them. Also, if I decide to plant strawberries, I'll keep them in pots too because past experience told me the roly-polys/pill bugs LOVE strawberries, so I need to keep them off the ground.

Thanks to the variety of pot sizes, I also have an opportunity to build an herb tower like the ones all over Pinterest (that links to a realistic-looking tower, not the impossibly perfect ones you see elsewhere). Herbs apparently like to grow close together, so I'm thinking rosemary, basil, mint and lemon balm will be my focus.

I also have read a bit about companion planting and gardening for bees, both of which rosemary is beneficial to. It's also extremely hardy and I know it will grow here because the neighbors have two beautiful rosemary shrubs in their front yard. Basil has been tough for me to grow the last few years in Central Texas, so I'm wary of it, but willing to give it another shot. 

In the realm of plants not fantasized about, I have quite a collection of kitchen-scrap sprouts already.

The avocado pits are the only underachievers here.

Two carrot tops are seen showing off bushy tops, a celery bottom is pushing up new stalks, and the two sweet potato sprouts I previously mentioned are looking happy in their new watery bed.

The lucky cloves that are already in dirt starter-homes.

I've also pushed a few (nine) sprouting garlic cloves into dirt already. It's a bit more a challenge to keep these moist, but I've never encouraged garlic to grow, so I'm excited to see how it goes. 

Also, I put some bell pepper seeds I'd saved over the winter in a bag to germinate a few weeks ago. Within a few days a few had tiny roots.  Three days after, they'd grown even more.

 On the left was taken Feb. 16, two days after placement. On the right was Feb. 19.

I've grown bell peppers with little trouble before. The exciting part of these is I can't remember which seeds came from what color pepper! Of course they'll all start green, but some may turn yellow or red, which are more expensive at the store anyway. 

Thinning seedlings is a step in the process I've always struggled with. I understand letting the strongest survive, but I feel bad that I encouraged all of the seeds to grow, then have to decide which just didn't do good enough and toss them. It feels cruel somehow, but I'll have to do it at some point. 

Brian has requested I try to grow radishes and banana peppers in the new bed. I'm curious about trying to grow my own pie pumpkins and giving tomatoes (in my tomato stand) another shot. Mom gave me some flower seeds for Christmas, which I'll tend to with glee. 

I'm just so excited to get some plants going this year, in pots as well as in the ground. There are rabbits in the neighborhood, so I'm anticipating having to create a gate around the box, but it's going to be an educational year in gardening for me. I just hope I get something pretty or impressive to show for it.

With this hard-working man and our supportive sidekick, how could I fail?