Spring, Coffee, Seeds

Let's see how many things I can cover in one post! HA!

First, welcome on in, Company Girls! The kettle is whistling... I've got instant decaff with Splenda and Half & Half so the baby won't freak out.

Next I'll do my garden log and review for The Growing Challenge: From Seed to Seed.

And this week's You Capture photo challenge is Spring. I thought my garden log would provide some appropriate photos for the challenge. It was fun thinking of both of these challenges as I photographed my plants this week!

We had the open house last Saturday, along with a baby shower! Everything went wonderfully. We enjoyed sharing the day with friends, family, and neighbors, and were showered with wonderful gifts for the coming baby. I posted a Virtual Open House and baby shower.

We had a frost last weekend. : ( I did cover my tomatoes, but it was so windy that the cover of Raised Bed #1 blew off. The Roma, which had suffered some stem damage from an insect earlier this week looked like a goner. The Mariglobe tomatoes got frostbite. The tomatillos' & onions' stems were broken by the flapping cover. I cried. Raised Bed #2 was fine.

The next night, another frost. Dad put out the covers for me because I wasn't feeling well. The tomatoes (Roma & Mariglobe) & tomatillos in Bed 1 appear to be gone. Also covered, Raised Bed #2 got frostbite as well. Both Wild Cherry tomatoes look completely dead. The Mortgage Lifter lost some leaves, but I think it will be ok. I still can't tell about the Yellow Pear (that's it in the photo).

Meanwhile, 3 yellow tomatoes planted in troughs at the back of the house were fine, uncovered. Those are the ones I got for free. Go figure. I think the house blocking the north wind helped.

Other bad news - the peppers that were transplanted into the garden? Too early. This truly is a learning experience! Luckily I had a lot of pepper seedlings. Here are some of the ones that are left:
I thought their leaves were having some kind of problem, but it turns out that those first leaves that appeared when they first sprout are starting to fall off, just leaving the true leaves behind. That makes the plants suddenly look smaller again! This one below is a firecracker pepper, which will be a pretty plant, so I put it in a pretty pot.

And of all the seeds that I had great success germinating, I'm having more trouble keeping them alive & transplanting them. I have moments of thinking, "Next year, I'm just buying plants," followed a little later by feelings of "I can do this!" Dad has a greenhouse that's not put together right now & even he mentioned using part of it for vegetable starting in the future. Maybe that would help. I think part of my problem now is that they dry out so fast on the porch with the wind we've been having.

And now, something has been digging little holes into the dirt in my pots (seedlings and larger pots!) on the porch at night!!!! Apparently this cat is not doing his job defending my plants at night! It's not him, because his paws would leave a bigger hole. Could it be a mouse? or some type of insect?

Now, some better garden news...

The carrot seeds that I replanted after David dug them up the first time are sprouting. I have no idea when I need to thin them. I don't think we'll be getting a lot of carrots out of this one pot, but it's still fun to see them grow. Elizabeth loves carrots, too. We'll enjoy whatever we get.

The lettuce garden on the back porch is still growing well. All the seeds came up around the edges of the pots. I wonder if maybe the seeds floated to the sides when I watered them in? I ate one of the tiny leaves Thursday evening. It was good!

A couple of bunches of Swiss Chard are still looking good. They've enjoyed the recent rain.

That's all the seeds. The potatoes also got frostbite last weekend, but they look like they'll come back. Onions are still growing well in the raised beds & troughs. I was tempted to pull one of Grandpa's the other day...

Dad will be excited to see this one (he's been at work) - the horseradish root I planted for him has sprouted!


Now on to the flowers! We don't really have much blooming this week. But we were given this beautiful geranium at the open house by one of our neighbors. The color is amazing and the plant is huge! This photo has not been edited at all!

I had purchased a 6-pack of petunias a few weeks ago & put those in little pots on the front porch to welcome our guests. I lucked out with a pack that was all different colors. (perhaps you've noticed I like things colorful around here) We had white, bright pink, red, deep purple, pale pink and one hasn't bloomed yet.

I think this is a claret cup cactus that we moved here with us from West Texas. The blooms were just starting to open.


I can't remember which post she commented on, but my bloggy friend Heather @ Not a DIY Life asked if the kids garden with me. (Her Ladybug is a few months younger than my Ladybug.) They love being outside with me and I do have some kids gardening tools.

David has a kid-size hoe and I've taught him that we want grass in the back yard, but not in the garden... and that we want sunflowers in the garden but not in the back yard! So far, he's done pretty good attacking the right thing in the right place. And when I say "attacking" that's really what it looks like. We've worked on controlling the hoe to actually hoe a weed, but when left on his own, he just attacks the plant (or the ground), leaves it maimed, and moves on to the next one.

I do most of my potting on the back porch. I have a big flat bucket thing that I set pots in while I'm working & it contains the potting soil mess. Elizabeth has a little hand rake and likes to scrape in the dirt in my work area. She also likes to fill little pots with dirt, pour it out, and do it again.

I use a watering can to water my seedlings & pots and MawMaw gave Elizabeth a little watering can at our first baby shower, so she also enjoys watering things. I don't want her watering the seedlings, so I usually ask her to water the flowers. She gets so proud that she's able to help, proclaiming, "I helpin'! I water flowers!"

As I forked some hay/compost into my potato cages this week, Elizabeth also threw in handfuls of dirt. I usually don't mind most of their help as long as they're not adding rocks or moving rocks from where I want them. We have a big pile of dirt that usually gets their attention that they dig & play in, also.

As they get older and continue to be outside with me and Dad, I'm sure teaching them about the plants and how to take care of them will just come naturally. It's all a learning opportunity. David understands about compost, recycling and how earth worms help the soil. And of course, they know that ladybugs are the good guys, so don't squeeze them! Dad is also looking forward to the day when David will be old enough to teach about lawn mowing!