The cat grass.

Ok, so a small container of cat grass (only sold at pet stores) runs about $5. It has a bunch of unknown chemicals used to grow it... so I never buy it. I did buy some cat grass seed at Home Depot or Lowe's this year. I planted two pots. The first was ready for the cats to enjoy, so here it is:

I have most of my seeds, except squash, planted now. I was out of town for a week on a family emergency, so they may have a little delay (I wasn't watering every day). We'll see how they go. The weekend's weather looks decent, so I might get some digging and initial planning done in the garden. We'll see - work has been crazy this week.

Ten minutes later update -

They ate ALL of the cat grass.

Seed Sowing

I have finished the first round of seed planting. Included were several kinds of heirloom tomatoes, peppers (4 kinds), herbs (parsley, catnip, cat grass, lavender, oregano, basil, and chives), onions (scallions and red ones), and probably something I am forgetting. The workbench in the basement looks like this now:

Yay, the cat grass (hey- not everything needs to be ate by me!) has sprouted! The cats seem excited, in the cat sort of way.

Finally, I just wanted to say that I have began working the bed for this year. It will be big. I didn't get any of that done last weekend, as we got 4 inches of snow, but we are just around the corner from spring. My poor cold weather onions, I think this might be the end of them.

Cheers!

Noel

Planting time is quickly approaching!

So much to do, and so little time. I should be planting seeds in two short weeks! Tomatoes need about 2 months of time before going in the ground. So, I set up the bench in the basement with the paper pots and plastic pots leftover from last year. I filled them with potting soil, and the lights are in place.

My wife and I were driving home the other day and I found a wooden trellis that someone was throwing out. I have made a little fence of sorts out of it, where the peas can grow up and use it for support.

I officially started the first seeds: Onions, and parsley, in little Jiffy pots, and cayenne peppers. We'll see how they do. As you may have seen in a previous post, onions may not be my forte.

Anyways, last Sunday was BEAUTIFUL. A wondrous sunny afternoon with a temperature in the 50s. I was outside, expanding the garden and taking out two bushes so I have enough room for everything. Now for the tough question. Do I put several rows of seeds perpendicular to the entrance side, or one long path, with several shorter parallel rows? I have a lot more work to do, but with another 2 days that are good weather, I should be able to do it in the time left before seedlings go in the ground. I'll plant the rest of my pepper seeds as soon as they arrive. Heirloom Acre Seeds took longer than I anticipated to ship. Tomatoes get planted next week!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I have been busy!

Snow Peas!

This morning, my wife and I picked up more seeds from a local store that I couldn't find online and picked up the following. I was so excited to see on the back that they could be planted now!

I went outside and cleaned up one of the beds. I raked, pulled out some dead weeds and plants, and tilled up two rows to plant. It was chilly outside, but this is the weather that they love - AND the ground wasn't frozen like when I harvested a few onions a couple weeks ago.

Grow peas, grow!

Seed Planting is Just Around the Corner!

I am getting ready for the big planting. I have seeds on the way: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, beans, squash, and tomatillas. One website I wanted to use was this one, but they are unable to fill any orders until next month! And they will probably be sold out of some of the seeds I wanted. I found another site, which is actually cheaper!

In preparation for starting seeds under the grow light in the basement, I have constructed newspaper pots, at the suggestion of the neighbor. I made probably 150 or so. I'll also get some peat pellets for some planters/mini greenhouses I got last year. I'll probably plant around 300-400 plants in the garden. Some, like onions will produce 1 vegetable. Others, like tomatoes could produce up to two dozen vegetables per plant. Likely, I will start too many seeds.

Anyways, if you are starting some seeds and want to make some paper pots, here's what I did. Take a large section of newspaper, with at least 2 or 3 sheets (to make it thick enough to be sturdy), and cut into thirds or fourths, depending on how tall you want them.

Find a small can or jar. I made the taller ones wrapped around a can of green chilies (I'm growing some this year). For some shorter ones, I used a small can of tomato paste. It got some newspaper ink on it. Oops.

After you wrap it around the can, tape it once or twice on the end, and then close one end like a wrapped gift. The closed end becomes the bottom (obviously).

The end product looks like this:

Fill with dirt, plant, and water seeds, and watch them grow. Newspaper is biodegradable and compostable, so if you want, you can put it straight in the ground! That's it for now. I'll let you know when I plant the seeds

Onions and a "heat wave"

This is more like a typical Atlanta winter right now. It was almost 60F today. Gorgeous, clear skies, and it looks like the overnight lows will not drop below freezing for a few days. We're expecting rain, so with the beautiful day I decided to try to harvest a few of the onions that didn't look as great in the garden.

I planted some sweet onions and some purple onions last year. They outlined the entire growing area, as many garden pests hate the smell of onion so much they will run the other way (and except for a few pesky chipmunks, that seemed to work pretty well). A few of the red onions came back after they were harvested, and I dug those up today. If you've ever wondered what exactly is meant by the ground being frozen, I think I can sum it up...

Those are little ice crystals on the onion and in the dirt. The fall onions I planted in October haven't grown much, so I put some fertilizer on them and I'm hoping for a bit more growth before the major planting season coming up in about 2 months.

I think I'll freeze the onions I did pick, maybe use them in a cup of soup next week. We'll see.

If you want to know how to freeze onions, it is simple. Cut them into small chunks, place on tray. Put tray in the freezer. Wait a while. Put onions in freezer bags and use as needed. They are typically good for about 6 months. And hey - I might as well freeze them, they are frozen already!

I placed the order from "Garden's Alive" that I was thinking about last post. I just got it today! I received a pack of insect repellent. It looks like it will be enough for several applications. This is good because I had such a problem last year with bugs eating my squash plants. I also have packets of seeds for scallions and German Tomatoes. We'll see how I do with the scallions. I haven't had much luck with onions yet. I am looking forward to a new variety of tomatoes this year.

I think that is about all I have to say for now. Cheers!