Big Updates (It's been a while, sorry!)

Update 1:

I caught a varmint in the basement. It was a small female rat who now lives a mile away in a forest-y creek. She no longer eats my plants. My picture did not come out. However, Little Ms Bandit seems to have had a companion. I had the no-kill trap to hopefully catch them, but alas, he (or she) decided that the rat poison looked good, and ate about 6-8 packs of poison. I am sure Little Ms Bandit's partner in crime (the crime being eating my seedlings) is no longer around, but several traps are set to hopefully catch any more critters who eat my pepper plants, flowers, and tomatoes.

While in the pursuit of Bandit, I put clear plastic around the planters of seedlings, making them small greenhouses. Upside: Bandit didn't eat my sprouting tomatoes. Downside: A little bit of white mold growing on the newspaper pots...

Real upside: A lot of baby plants which will hopefully grow quickly so I can put them outside in the garden in a few weeks. I've brought the largest ones inside to get sunlight in the south-side window and stay away from the critters.

Yay, tomatoes growing... it makes me happy.

Update Number 2.

I've began planting things in the garden. I bought a bunch of red onions and sweet onions to plant (a brown lunch bag full) for $2. They are outlining the major perimeter of the garden, in three rows. I have moved the scallions outside to the garden, and planted some more scallion seeds with the row. I've also planted some carrot seed, radish seed, and flax seed. YUM!

The onions, which I planted a few weeks ago are thriving. I saw one that was starting to sprout out of the ground, and so I went to re-plant it this morning (I may have missed it the first time). The roots were over 3 inches long!

Update 3: Berries!

A colleague of mine moved to Chile last year and gave me raspberry and blackberry plants. He told me to keep them outside in pots/ inside with the grow light until spring. I did, and I planted them outside. The raspberries are doing well. The blackberries aren't far behind.

Also, I planted that strawberry pot I blogged about before with those strawberries I got at Lowes or Home Depot. The berries are all doing well, except for one little plant. It should be ok - strawberries spread a lot.

Oh, right - strawberry pots are difficult to maintain because of multiple holes in the side, and it is so deep that it can be hard to water. The solution is to put a PVC pipe, that you drill a lot of holes into the side of, in the middle, and fill it with rocks. The result is a watering tube to keep the center moist.

Update 4 (Random leftover stuff):

I got compost for the whole garden. It is between 1 and two inches thick and at least the onions love it thus far.

The neighbors trimmed their rosemary. I took some trimmings and dried it, and made some of Urbanbreadmachine's Famous Rosemary Bread, and stuck some of the trimmings in some dirt, and they seem to still be alive.

Lastly, the peas sprouted. They are all growing quickly and starting to cling to the trellises. Yay! (And you can also see the blackberries (left) and raspberries (right) in this photo.

That's all for now. I'll try to post a picture of the onions (and my new design for a tomato cage) tomorrow.