Journey11's Garden Journal 2014

[journey11]

Is there anything more full of hope than a seed?

I found some old seeds I had forgotten about. A couple were procured in a trade several years back. I planted them anyway, wishing I had done it sooner and without much hope that they would sprout. Low and behold, 3 weeks later, over the past couple of days I've checked and found all four things had one seed in their tray that sprouted! Malabar spinach, rocoto pepper, wild blue indigo and sheepnose pimento pepper. All new to me. I'm excited to try them and save more seed from them.
Hope springs eternal!

 

[journey11]

We are locked into a rainy pattern for the next week, so it looks like it may be Memorial Day weekend before I can get my garden in. That's usually about right anyway. Ava and I potted up all of the tomatoes from cell packs into 16 oz. recycled containers this weekend. They'll be quite happy there with the miracle gro potting soil for the next 2 weeks and get off to a good start. I'll try to get some pics today.

If it pours as heavily as they are calling for, it's a good thing I didn't get the big garden planted yet. It would have gotten washed out anyway.

I will use this down time to collect straw and cardboard for mulch. I'm determined to have a weed-free summer!

 

[Smart Red]

Good luck on the weed-free issue! That is a goal we'd all like to emulate.

 

[journey11]

I hit the jackpot on cardboard at the recycle center today. Some foodservice had dropped off a ton of flattened boxes. All fit nice and neat in the back of my Escape.

 

[Lavender2]

Is there anything more full of hope than a seed?

I found some old seeds I had forgotten about. A couple were procured in a trade several years back. I planted them anyway, wishing I had done it sooner and without much hope that they would sprout. Low and behold, 3 weeks later, over the past couple of days I've checked and found all four things had one seed in their tray that sprouted! Malabar spinach, rocoto pepper, wild blue indigo and sheepnose pimento pepper. All new to me. I'm excited to try them and save more seed from them.
Hope springs eternal!

I just pulled some pods off my wild blue indigo as I was cleaning out my gardens. If you would like more seed PM me your mailing info.

 

[journey11]

Thanks @Lavender2 , but I got over two dozen of these to sprout and grow so far. I think these were some you'd given me in a seed train trade a couple years ago. I did the 10% bleach soak thing, then soaked for 24 hours in water, then put them in a plastic baggie with a damp papertowel and moved them into cell packs as they germinated. It took about 6 weeks, but they did finally wake up. They were kept in the freezer all that time, which I think helped.

 

[journey11]

Ava's love of nature has taken a creepy turn this evening. She has had a crawdad in a foam cup sitting on top of my kitchen hutch for two days now. She checked on it before bed and just realized that it is GONE. Little clawing marks going up the side of the cup too!

Now that is going to give me nightmares. It's loose in my kitchen SOMEWHERE!

 

[thistlebloom]

Hmmm.... naw.. I'm sure they can't turn doorknobs....

 

[journey11]

Hopefully it will open the back door and let itself OUT. Or hope the cats will eat it!

 

[journey11]

Well, I've got more bok choy than I know what to do with and it's ready, so I'm going to take it all out so I can free up that space in the garden (and pull all the weeds). I read that you can freeze it just as you would other cabbages (no blanching required), so I'm going to freeze a bunch. And I also read that it is really good dehydrated; that it concentrates the flavor and makes a great addition to soups and stews. So I'm going to try that too. That you do have to blanch it for.

Has anyone tried either method and did it turn out to your liking?