the news from the garden

Everything in me wants to start another blog dedicated to gardening. But since i already have three blogs I will carry on here. I mean technically i am still on a journey with  Serenity. Never mind that we have been parked up for quite some time! I have realized that instead of keeping a garden journal to look back on for planting and such things next year that I can blog about it! Photos and everything.
So here is some random news from the garden.

We are trying out Artichokes. Will see what happens. And Mustard Greens. This is our Alabama plot!

Peas and carrots love to be together on a plate and in the garden. When Nigel and I sow seed I always seem to sow twice as much. I guess Nigel has more faith in the seed than me.

Potatoes are away. Three stacks three high. Might have some ready for Christmas!

Our strawberries got aphids! I made a spray with water, dish soap, and veggie oil. Sprayed them each evening for three days and the aphids seem to be gone! Yeah! We also have some aphids on our lettuce patch. I have started spraying those with a garlic and hot pepper spray. I didnt like the idea of eating oily lettuce. It has only been two days so will have to see how that works.

The first Iris! We got these bulbs from a friend and weren't sure if they would bloom or not since we got them in the ground late and everyone else seems to have already bloomed. But here they come in all their glory!

the pods

radish pods I mentioned earlier that we have been letting our radishes go to seed. It has been so interesting to me.
They are such little plants and yet they have shot up 4 times their original size. And they have these dainty little pink blossoms waving in the wind up the top. I have been watching them daily wondering what they will do next. There had been no sign of any seeds. I thought maybe they would show up somewhere when the flowers fell off.
silverbeets gone wild and lettuce blossoms Little did I know!
Pods!
The radishes are forming little pods. Inside which will be the seeds.
Of course! What was I thinking.
I guess we wait until they dry up and then crack em open.

Watching our plants go to seed is a bit of a journey for me.

It is a slow process in this fast paced life of ours. It would be much more "efficient" to just buy some new seeds from the shop and plant them than to wait the months for these plants to produce their own.

Now beside the fact that buying the seeds from the shop is not the best long term. Dont get me started on seed companies!

There is something about the letting the plants go through their natural process.

The journey of planting a seed.
Watching it grow.
Enjoying the fruit from the plant.
Watching the plant grow some more.
Enjoying the beauty of the blossoms.
Watching the plant grow more.
Harvesting the seed.
Planting a new seed.
There is more sometimes in the slow journey.

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the conclusion on toilet paper rolls in the garden

Things are growing around here. We are busy in the green house moving our heat loving plants into bigger pots as it it still too cold to put the outside. We are busy moving not so sensitive plants out of the green house and into the ground. We are busy in the gardens mulching and weeding and putting up things for our climbers to climb on.

I talked about in an earlier post that we were using egg cartons, newspaper pots and toilet paper rolls for our seedlings. I have come to the conclusions that TP rolls are out. I am not sure why but our seeds did not seem to do as well in them. They also dont seem to decompose very quickly in the soil. So after one short season of research this is our preferred method of starting seeds.

 The egg cartons are great for starting smaller seeds. They need to be kept moist. It seems that one of those pressure mister sprayer bottles works best. We tried a normal spray bottle and it took FOREVER. Once the seedlings get about this big you will notice their roots are starting to come through the bottom. Time to transfer to the newspaper pots.

The newspaper pots are great. I watch a you tube video to get the jist of it. Just don't use the glossy paper. Bad chemicals! They are good for planting bigger seeds like pumpkin and for moving small seedlings from the egg cartons into. When you plant them in to ground you can put the whole pot in but we have been carefully unfolding the paper and planting them without the pot. The paper seems a bit thick to me.

After the paper pots we have been moving some things into the ground into the green house, some things outside, and others into plastic pots. Whey need more room to grow but cant go outside yet, It seems a shame to use plastic now when we have avoided it thus far but I have yet to come up with a cheap alternative. Any ideas?!