The race is on to turn my half barren vegetable plot into a success before the season ends. My transplanted tomatoes and peppers are doing very well. Of the seeds I planted, only about half actually survived. Partly that was probably due to a lack of consistent watering, or perhaps it was just related to the rock-hard soil I am trying to cultivate. After spending
Garden Planted
After only being in our new house about a week, with boxes piled high in every room, I already felt overdue for planting a garden. Finding our clean linens, food supplies and shoes could wait. The sooner I got everything in the ground, the sooner I could enjoy fresh produce from my backyard. I started by removed the cover crops that had not been turned
Vegetable Beds Planted
The raised vegetables beds have been planted periodically since early March. The cold weather spinach and kale went in first and I used thick plastic as row covers to keep them toasty. A few weeks later I added carrots, lettuces, beets and parsnips. The plastic have given all those vegetables a great start and they are flourishing! We’re eating kale chips and salads almost every
Spring Seedlings
This is only the second year I have tried growing vegetables from seed, and I have a long way to go before I feel like an expert. Things seem to be doing well though for early April. The tomatoes and peppers have a couple sets of real leaves. The brussel sprouts and other cold-weather plants are almost ready to move outside. With the gorgeous weather
Video: Newspaper Seed Pots
We are in prime seed-starting mode and a few people had questions about making seed pots from newspaper. I decided to make a little tutorial video for reference. Here it is: Hopefully this short video, along with my earlier post that lists out the instructions, will keep things nice and simple for you. Remember that when you are ready to plant the seedlings outdoor, bury
Starting Seeds
This weekend I spent a couple hours having a craft party with myself, getting the newspaper seed pots formed and filled with organic potting soil. They have been planted and are neatly resting on my beautiful, old record player. I enjoyed the last of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album before closing up the record player until May, when the seedlings can all move outside. Currently, I
Newspaper Seed Pots Again!
I have most of my vegetable seeds all organized and ready to start growing from seed inside. It’s time to turn back to my trusty post from last year on how to make seed pots from newspaper. No special tools are required. All those old copies of the New York Times are now going to come in handy! I will post more this weekend about
Seed Exchange Party
Sunday I took a nice long drive up north of Seattle, Washington, to participate in a seed exchange at Laura’s Not-So-Urban Hennery. And somehow I managed to convince my friend Denise to come along! Round trip, this was a seven hour drive, plus a diversion to Morton, Washington, to visit a nursery that I will write more about later. The seed exchange was really fun!
June Harvests
Things are trucking along quite well on the ‘ole urban homestead this June. We are happily reaping some of the rewards from our perennial plantings last year. The two cherry trees have enough fruit to snack on between breaks in yard work. The artichokes have been prolific! We had a feast of them last night for dinner. I left about half of the artichokes to