Harvest

Got back from a nice weekend away to find a nice harvest waiting for us:



Most turned into dinner tonight; the rest became lunch for tomorrow.

For dinner tonight I sliced the tomatoes and just put a little salt and basil from the garden on top. Sliced the cucumber and carrots for dipping in hummus. Boiled water for corn (brought home from Charlottesville this weekend) and dropped the purple and green beans near the end - served the corn and beans with a little butter and salt. Delicious dinner.

Check back tomorrow for a post on what became lunch!

Blooming

The "babies" are doing beautifully. It is truly amazing how fast they're sprouting and growing. These photos are taken five days apart:





and





and

They're alive!

The seedlings are sprouting! I hooked up the grow lights now that they've broken through and now our bedroom's like a disco.

Starting the garden

It's amazing that it took a full week of putting "Start seedlings" on my to-do list to finally get around to it. We had a tough week after some scary news from the pediatrician, but I also went real-estate hunting, put in a bid on an investment property (didn't get it) and I'm tying up some loose legal ends with our current rental houses as well. So poor seedlings didn't get started until about a week after I wanted them to but I think we'll be okay.

I bought two of these APS seed-starting systems to provide the seedlings with a constant water supply from below. I used the 40-block one for plants that will need to be transplanted at least once before putting in the ground (regular tomatoes, grape tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers, and eggplant) and used the 24-block one for the herbs and broccoli that will stay there until being put outside.





I went to Home Depot to spend my free $500 gift card on supplies and planned on buying a small shelving unit to put my seedlings and grow lights on. But as I was picking out the one that cost $104, I realized that I've sold off a lot of my eBay inventory and haven't filled it back in yet, and that I have plenty of space on the shelving in our bedroom (yes, shelving in the bedroom. Romantic, yes?)

So, I consolidated my inventory and cleared off two shelves. I put down a cheap shower curtain liner and positioned it to wrap up and over the seedling shelf. I'm not supplying any heat to the seedlings so I hope wrapping it in the liner will help keep some moisture and warmth in there. I put down a towel to catch drips and then lined the whole thing in free aluminum foil to reflect as much light as possible back onto the bottoms and sides of the seedlings. Voila!







Now let's just hope it works!

My great big enormous Burpee order

This is the year of the expanding garden, and I'm trying a bunch of new items that I've never grown. Last year I added in cucumbers and carrots, but other than that it was the standard tomatoes, red peppers, hot peppers (for friend Dave), and herbs.

This year I'm adding in lettuce (looseleaf), Romaine, spinach, broccoli, sugar snap peas, bush beans, pole beans, and eggplant. I may have overshot a bit but I'm choosing to be optomistic and hoping I'm graced with an extra-green thumb this summer.

Here's the plan:

Romaine lettuce: Little Caesar
"Perfect for small gardens and easy to grow."




Lettuce, looseleaf: Heatwave
"Thrives in the heat, and remains productive and tasty longer than all others."




Spinach: Baby's Leaf Hybrid
"The flat green leaves are sweet tender and very easy to clean."




Carrots: Little Finger
"Tiny gourmet great for salads."




Broccoli: Green Goliath
"Large headed, tight budded, blue-green variety."




Bush beans: Tenderpick
"Great flavor, similar to Tenderpod, with improved germination."




Pole beans: Purple King
"Beans that yield steadily all summer until frost." <-- That's a catchy one, huh?




Cherry Tomatoes: Sun Gold Hybrid
"Rapidly becoming the most popular cherry tomato of all time."




Tomatoes: Big Beef Hybrid
"Extra large, 10-12 oz., red fruits are firm, juicy and highly flavored."




Sugar snap peas: Super Sugar Snap V.P.
"This incredible pea is even better than the famous Sugar Snap."




Cucumber: Slicing, Straight Eight
"A cucumber superstar, this classic has excellent flavor and is widely adapted."




Eggplant: Burpee Hybrid
"Continuously produces many oval, medium-sized, glossy, purple fruits."




Sweet pepper: California Wonder
"HEIRLOOM. The Standard Bell Pepper"




Hot pepper: Hot Lemon (Heirloom)
"From Ecuador, as hot as any Cayenne, but with a truly unique flavor."




Basil: Sweet
"Classic herb, used in tomato sauce, pesto and salads."




Rosemary
"Fragrant leaves flavor meats, poultry and potatoes."




Cilantro




Chives

Getting started on the garden!

I've been working on my garden plans for a few weeks, figuring out what to plant this year. I'm trying to add something new each year as I learn more and more about container gardening.

I'm trying to expand this year, and thinking about mounting window-boxes along the fence all the way around our tiny yard. We have great sunlight but no more room on the brick-patio, so I decided that if I can't grow OUT I'm going to try growing UP! I'm keeping an eye on Freecycle for people giving away window boxes and mounting equipment, and a few weeks ago I saw a post of someone giving away compost.

Trying to keep costs down this year, I know that if I want to expand I need to find a way to stretch the organic potting soil that I purchased last year. At almost $20/bag, it's very pricey and each container uses quite a bit of it. I knew that mixing in some compost would help improve the soil that was used last year, and stretch it at the same time.

When I went to pick up the compost, it really wasn't compost at all - it was a big pile of leaves. Certainly compost in the making, but not compost yet. I scooped out as much as I could from the base of the pile where it was wetter and darker, and then took about 6 trash bags of the dry leaves on the top.

I've never tried composting before because I thought that you needed to use food scraps to make it work, and putting food in your backyard in DC is a great way to attract DC's mascot: the RAT. But I did some research, and you can do a decent compost with just yard waste so I decided to give it a shot this year!

Step 1 - Set up the compost bin (cost: free thanks to a City of Rockville program my Mom took advantage of):



Step 2 - Fill with a layer of dry leaves and yard debris (cost: free from Freecycle):



Step 3 - Sprinkle a layer of soil to provide some stuff that the internet says I should provide to make the compost do whatever it is that compost does (cost: free; extra bag from last year):



Step 4 - Add some of the wet leaves that are slightly more compost-ey:



Step 5 - Add a shredded-up newspaper to provide some stuff that the internet says I should provide to make the compost do whatever it is that compost does:



Voila! Compost bin.



If I can find more leaves I'll fill it to the top, and then start on the second one I've got ready to go. With proper care and turning, I should hopefully have some beautiful compost come April!

Tonight I'm curling up with the Burpee catalog and picking out all of my seeds. To keep costs low I'll only be growing one or two types of each vegetable so I have to pick carefully. It's so nice to think about summer while it's so cold outside!

Harvest!

Check out this morning's harvest!



Nate got to eat the first cucumber with his lunch yesterday and I forgot to take a photo. Alas! A moment of our life undocumented!

Tonight's dinner will be those beautiful tomatoes combined with fresh mozzarella, basil from the garden, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. We'll also dine on the delicious bread I made this morning (which warrants a whole separate post. Stay tuned.)

Garden update

Yesterday we got to eat our very first ripe tomatoes.



Worth every minute of work. I can't wait to eat 4,294 more.

Garden update

I swear the garden grows every night. It's amazing. I love coming out in the morning and seeing how it looks, and if there are any new little tomatoes, and how everything is thriving. It's such a joy.

Blooming

Massive growth.



So the Burpee order that I canceled? They refunded me, but shipped it anyway. It arrives today with a whole load of tomato seedlings inside. I'll inventory it when it comes in and figure out what the heck to do with all of these new babies! I'm excited, but I need more planters and soil (and space!).

Hmmmm...

Garden progress

It is such a joy to go outside to check on the garden; it truly grows noticeably every day.



I am particularly proud of the cucumbers; they're the first vegetable I've ever grown from seed. They're doing great.



Chives:



Cilantro:



Basil:



Carrots:



Bell peppers:



Everything is blooming and thriving. Everything except for the rosemary. Not a single seed has grown. Odd.