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
Flops and Fertilzer
Unfortunately, I have to admit the first year of starting seeds indoors has been a flop. Not all is wasted. I learned some good lessons, like how long to keep the grow light on… I also managed to just direct sow a lot of my seeds when the indoor versions were taking too long. The only big disappointment has been the five varieties of tomatoes
Garden Pests
The last few days I have begun to notice some pest damage to my plants outside. This morning I took a nice long stroll with a cup of coffee and inspected the situation. Slugs have been munching on the collard greens and the raspberry bushes. I have also noticed holes in some melon and squash starts, which is another sure sign of slugs. There were