Gardening Adventure - Week 2.

Got a few more plants. The picture is of 4 onion, 2 jalapeño, 1 bell pepper, and 1 strawberry plant. All bought as sort of baby plants, but not seeds.

The stuff that I planted from seeds last week started off pretty well. I kept them in the container in a closet so that the cold weather we had last week wouldn't mess them up. During the week they sprouted impressively. They turned into these white, wiry looking things with small green, proto-leaves at the top. But, when I put the container out this weekend, yesterday specifically, those little sprouts just laid down and died on me. They had been living in an enclosed warm environment, maybe they couldn't take the sun and the air and the heat.

Whatever. I replanted most of them and I am keeping the seedlings outside, so they will be exposed to the sun and the air from the giddy up.

Aside from that stuff, I have a mix of flowers that I just put into a box and watered occasionally. They are just starting to sprout. The sprouts aren't as long, but the leaves/leavlings/proto-leaves, are more sturdy looking, so I think they will thrive a little better.

Anyway, today was a great day for plants. It was in the high 70's low 80's I think and sunny. Perfect.

Container Gardening

I was thumbing through lifehacker a couple of weeks ago and they had a suggestion for a weekend project - start a container garden. The post had a link to 'Vegetable Gardening in Containers', by Sam Cotner, Extension Horticulturist. The page was a public service by the Agriculture program of Texas A&M.

Since the apartment I have been in since last August has a patio, I can actually do this, and I was pretty psyched about the idea.

I went to WalMart that weekend and got some seeds, containers, a watering can, a spray bottle, gardening soil and misc. other stuff.

Today I planted the seeds for 3 types of tomatoes, spinach, romaine lettuce, and cayenne peppers. Also I planted 4 small pots of onions which came in bulb form, if thats what they are called, not seeds. (Interesting to note, I guess the term 'Vidalia' onion is a trademark or something. The ones I got came with a note saying they come from Vidalia, Georgia (I think), but they can't call them Vidalia onions for some reason.)

The seeds are supposed to take 7-10 days to germinate (which I think means become a small plant instead of just a seed.) The theory is that you are supposed to get started with this sort of stuff around 4 weeks or so before the last frost, which in Colorado, or the Denver area at least, is supposed to be mid May, so I am fairly on track.

After getting those seeds going, I went back to WalMart and got some more seeds and some small plants. So now, on top of the stuff previously listed, I have Lemon Thyme, Rosemary, Jalapeño, and Oregano plants.

We'll see how all this turns out. I haven't really done much gardening before, I don't generally keep plants, and it seems like kind of a touchy business. But it's been fun so far. Kind of like a science fair project. Plus the season is just getting started, so if I fuck things up, I can try again later in the summer. (Some of the plants take a couple of months til harvest, so there is plenty o' time.)