Garden!

Witness my impenetrable garden of awesomeness!  It's a 4' x 8' raised bed, surrounded by 1/2" wire fence, covered with bird netting.  Nothing planted yet since it might snow again this week.  But soon there will be beans, peas, lettuce, herbs, and even tomatoes and cukes if we get enough sun!

Whew.  Time for a nap.

African Violets

This is a photo of my African Violets back in June of this year:

 

And these are pictures of them now:

My question: why are the flowers so very white, with hardly any "violet" left on them at all?

[This is post #94.  When do you think I will get to 100?  If you're right, you might win!]

Next Year's Garden (and a CONTEST!)

Last week I ordered some seeds from Seed Savers Exchange at 50% off.  From left to right, starting in the top row, I have beans (dry), beans (snap), beets, blue corn, pickling cucumbers, purple basil, Greek oregano, leeks, lettuce, peas, peppers, pumpkins, and tomatoes.  So I'm very excited to grow things next spring.

Also, this is my 90th post on this blog!  I am holding another contest: whoever most correctly predicts when I will post my 100th post will win a chance to guest post here at WWWW.  Or I will guest post on your blog.  Or I'll write you a limerick.  Basically, the prize is negotiable.  Start guessing the day and time I will post the 100th entry on this blog!  I don't even know myself (I don't have it planned out or anything), so we'll all be surprised.

My own beans!

For a few weeks here, I've had green beans growing on the plants.  I didn't want to pick them yet, though, because I often get green beans in my CSA (community-supported agriculture) box, and I didn't want to be inundated with beans.  So I'm letting my own dry on the vine (the seed packet says you can do this), and today, my first pod was ready.  I opened it up, and inside were three perfect "painted pony" beans, and one that's a little abnormal.

More to come soon, I hope!

Happenings around the house

Yesterday I planted some new things in my garden.  The spinach had pretty much run its course, so I pulled out about half of it and planted beans.  I have no idea if they will grow well with the limited sunlight I get here, but we'll see.  They're from Seed Savers Exchange, a bi-color variety called "Painted Pony".  I also may have gotten a little carried away, and planted tomato seeds and cucumber seeds, also from SSE, in varieties called "Isis Candy Cherry" and "Bushy", respectively.

The Garden of Eden...

it ain't.  But I'll have spinach, herbs, and flowers this summer.

Thinnings for breakfast

The spinach has developed secondary leaves!

Can you see them?  They're more roundish than the original sprouts.

Spinach is growing!

The spinach is doing quite well!  During the few late-season snows we've had, I've been putting the lid that came with the tub on, and that seems to have helped the soil stay consistently moist, not too soggy nor too dry, nor too cold.  The short amount of sunlight is, I think, causing the sprouts to grow slower than they might otherwise, but I think they'll make it anyway.  I hope.

Spinach has sprouted!

I woke up this morning, knowing that it might snow tomorrow, and looked out the window to check on the spinach bed.  To my surprise, there were little green things sticking out all over!  I had to go out and get a closer look:

Close-ups taken from my phone almost always look bad.

Green stuff!  Hooray!  Now I just have to keep them alive through the weekend (lows in the low 30's), and we should be good to go!

The Next Morning...

Good news!  Although the temperatures were in the low teens overnight, my tub of dirt and seeds did not freeze all the way through.  There's frost on top, and a layer of frozen soil, but I can stick my finger down into loose, still-moist goodness.  Hooray!

Spring has sprung!

Last weekend was the Spring Equinox.  I had decided to plant spinach on my balcony, as it is both shade- and container-tolerant.  So I went to Home Depot to purchase containers, dirt, seeds, and tools.  I was surprised to find that, at least at my location, they did not stock large bags of potting soil, nor large containers of the type I wanted.  I decided to improvise; I bought a plastic tub of the type that is meant to store out-of-season clothing under the bed, and a set of power tools, including 18V drill/driver, 5.5" circular saw, flashlight, and dustbuster.  I used the drill to make some holes in the bottom of the tub (for drainage), but alas, I still had no dirt.  After a week of asking countrified friends if they had any dirt, the tub was still empty.

Today, after attending a baby shower in Chanhassen, I went to the Eden Prairie location of Menard's.  Their garden section is considerably more useful than HD's; not only did they have many different kinds of soil in large bags, they stocked gravel (to improve drainage), sand, watering cans, and other heavy duty materials and tools.  I have figured it out.  Home Depot is where suburbanites and urbanites go for their DIY needs; Menard's is where ruralites, farmers, and wanna-bes (like me) go.

I wish I could have taken pictures of the process, but my hands were rather dirty.  First, I took three trips to lug the gravel (very heavy) and two 2 cu. ft. bags of potting soil to my apartment.  Then I shoveled/swept the snow and most of the ice off the balcony.  I got the tub positioned and added the gravel, then a layer of soil.  When you use potting soil, you're not supposed to use it dry; you're supposed to get it thoroughly "moist", but not too wet.  I decided to use hot tap water, since it was pretty cold out, figuring that if the water started out hot, it would be less likely to freeze completely overnight.  I ended up doing three layers of soil, watering with hot water and mixing with the hand rake between each layer.  It felt amazing to dig my hands into that warm, moist earth.  My arms were black to the elbow by the time I was done.  Finally, I sprinkled the spinach seeds over the top and covered them with a little more soil.  I wish I had a big piece of Plexiglas to put over the top, to help it stay warm.  I hope they don't freeze.  Updates will be forthcoming!

After all that (plus getting up at 4:30am; long story), I was a little tired.  So I watched a documentary that I just happened to find at the library, The Farmer and the Horse, which Jenna happened to mention recently also.  It made me so excited!  All about farming with draft animals instead of tractors, in NJ, of all places.  Being originally from NJ myself, it was super cool to see the Howell Farm and even a shot of the Hopewell Borough train station and farmer's market.  Wow!  I highly recommend watching this if you can get it.  [Mom: I checked the MCL catalog, but apparently they don't have it.  Since it's about local farming, maybe you could suggest they buy a copy?]