Oh The Madness!

Last week, I mistakenly bought more cabbage seeds when I really needed more Cauliflower seeds. And for some reason I had already gotten a bunch wet. So, I put them on a wet paper towel on a plate and stuck it in a baggy to let them germinate. This is what is left after I put 18 in cell packs seen below! I hate hate hate to waste perfectly good seedlings!  I think there will be lots of cabbages planted sporadically all through out my yard this year! Ha ha! And, I have offered some to a friend who will hopefully use some! Let's just say, I still have more outside in containers that I had already planted before I made this oops! Good thing I can freeze cabbage! Plus, I probably shouldn't worry about it too much, cause who knows how many will actually make it!

Adding on to the Garden

Yesterday my dh and my little garden helper got to work on two new beds to add to the garden. I'm hopeful to get them all filled up soon.  They seem so much bigger and I can't wait to fill them up!

Seed Planting updates

So today was in the lower 60's and a great day to get outside to do a few things. I was excited to get to put some use to my new gardening shoes I got for Christmas! Ladybugs.

DH not only wrote me a beautiful poem for Valentines Day but got me a pop up greenhouse as well!

I tucked some of my seedlings in there, 3 packs of peas, and a pack of spinach. Hope they do alright out there. I didn't harden them. Eh, they are better direct planted anyways, so if they don't make it, I was going to direct seed anyways. But I wanted to make some room in my indoor greenhouse for some more warm weather seedlings and some of the peas were getting too tall for my shelves and lights. I'll plant them in here in a few days when it gets warmer in there, because it is suppose to be a very nice week! 50s and 60s, yippee!

I also decided to follow some fellow bloggers in winter sowing, even though there hopefully is not much winter left! Hope, hope, hope...

I have broccoli, cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Chard and Pak Choi in these. 

And warning to my fellow gardeners who are as "smart" as I am. I was using a razor blade on these and got distracted and slipped and sliced a thumb. Yep, 7 stitches. So be careful! Needless to say, I used scissors and a drill to finish them up!

Happy Seeding!

Seedlings and more seeds

I think I am going to run out of room. I have bought more seeds, and I still hope to find a few more. I am going to do some rearranging this year to make room. There might be vegetable plants in the middle of my flower beds as well. My first big rearrangement will be the flower bed in front of my deck.

I plan to take out all the lilies and move them and dig out several inches of soil to amend and plant blueberry bushes there with the azaleas. They should be happy together. I may also put a cranberry bush on the right corner. I definitely do not want to get rid of the beautiful lilies though. I love them! They are so bright and red! I haven't decided where I am going to put them though.

My seedling seem to be doing well. The peas are getting big enough to go out, but it has been pretty cold here lately and I don't think they can handle it. But a warm up is coming so I might get them out soon and use a little cover to protect them as needed.

 Some of the peas are nice an tall, so I don't know if it is legginess or not, because another batch is really short and stocky, hidden behind the leggy basil that has had a serious lack of light most the winter. But I do have another light in here now, and hope it helps. Hey, at least they are still alive!

I bought some more seeds here recently. I got some yellow onions and planted them right away. They are just starting to pop out.

Some others that are added to the list of newbies:

Dragon Tongue Bean

Taylor's Dwarf Horticultural bush dry bean

white wonder cucumber

Ruby Queen Sweet corn

Spanish gold onion

borage

Cherokee purple tomato

icicle radish

Where to plant, where to plant... Been working on some garden plans, but it is really hard to get a good idea how everything will go without getting out there. And it has been so darn cold and snowy lately! But hey, at least there is a little spring in my indoor greenhouse!

DDC Wks 8 and 9

Getting a bit behind in blogging lately with unexpected travel, the winter dragging on and on and on....So, this week I have to catch up on my 2 DDC posts. Last weeks was a tough one. There really isn't much to do with cube steak and having as a local meal made it even harder. We fried it up and had it with green beans. Yep, I am running out of green beans. I have 2 bags left in the freezer! As for cube steak, local or not, it is definitely not something I really enjoy. But dh did a great job frying it up in some local flour. Pretty simple.

 This weekend we hit the farmer's market and noticed some baggies of dried beans, so I thought pork and beans! Dh bought some pork loins and a package of bacon to go with our dried beans. I started all of it on low in the crock pot this morning, beans on the bottom, then the pork loin topped with a few strips of bacon all covered in water. I added some garlic, salt and Bourbon Barrel Pepper about an hour before it was ready. It was done just in time for dinner and the baby boy and I loved it! So, we packaged some up and took some warm over to DH at work for his dinner! Thought it would be better than a can of soup! It does look like mush, but it sure was delicious! Tender and juicy and full of flavor!

DDC Wk 7

Ky Bison "Ugly" Sirloin, Butternut squash, and roasted potatoes.

We now know why they are called "ugly" and cheap. They had a lot of grizzle. Not just fatty, but grizzly. While the Ky Bison is very good, we won't buy the "ugly" again. That is what we get for trying to be cheap! Ha! The squash was super yummy. I again drizzled it with KY Sorghum, and also some local honey, salt, pepper and some red pepper flaks. Could have used more pepper flakes, didn't really taste 'em. I topped the steak again with my Capriole Goat Cheese/butter/garlic/dried tomatoes mixture and it was, again, good! It is pretty snowy here for KY so they aren't getting too many vegetables out at the farm. Potatoes and squash were my only choices. I was kind of hoping for some parsnips. Maybe next week.

Seeds have been started and we are hoping to get more growing soon to add some variety to our local winter meals.  Around here we should definitely be getting something growing before the end of our challenge in April! I guess it all depends on how long winter wants to hang on, and it isn't looking too good the way this winter has been going! Maybe since it started so early it will leave early! I can hope...

Seed Starting January 21, 2011

Today the kids and I started seeds. Alaskan, Lincoln, and Super Sugar Snap peas. Thyme, Rosemary, Cabernet Onions and bunching onions, and spinach.

 The basil is still going as well, though not too strong. I did however get a HO light that is in there but still needs a bulb, which I plan to do in the next couple of days. I hope this will help us get through the next few seed starting months. Please, please, please! I hope it works out! I don't want all my seedlings to die out this year like they did last year!

Although I do have so much planned I hope I am going to have enough room. I am thinking about taking the cooler weather stuff out to the garage with the 4ft shop light to make more room.

Here are some of the new comers I can't wait to get started!

-Goldie Husk Cherry

-Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomato

-Sugar Buns Corn

-Robust Popcorn (popcorn)

-Red Russian Kale

-Cabernet Red onion

-Javelin Parsnips

-Lipstick Pepper

-Da Cheong Chae Pak  Choi

-Summer Ball Pumpkin

-Thyme

-Rosemary

-Black Cherry Tomato (thanks EG)

-Brandywine Tomato (thanks EG)

I still plan to get blueberry, cranberry and raspberry bushes.

I was very blessed this Christmas with some great gardening gifts, including seeds, garden shoes, a digital scale, plant label markers and more! They will get lots of use this season!