Starting Seeds

Well the seeds the I started indoors in the Jiffy Greenhouse have all with the exception of the Parsley have sprouted. Some of them started to sprout within 3 days after planting them. The rest of them have now sprouted. I also started some peppers and tomatoes on the 19th and they are now sprouted. The tomatoes sprouted before the peppers but now they are both up. The sprouts are growing taller and I keep them inside in the sun during the day. I am waiting for the true leaves to start and then I will start hardening them.
The strawberries outside are doing well. Some of them don't look like they will make it but I am going to give them a little more time before I give up on them. But most of them are doing well. They are everbearing and one of them has had flower buds and I have snipped them off. I am going to do that till the end of June and then after that let them be. This should produce a better strawberry crop for the end of summer/fall.
The mixed lettuces that I planted outside in the window boxes have sprouted as well. Quite a lot of them are up. They are looking well.
I am counting down the days now till we can into the allotment garden. Six more days and then the tilling will begin.

Love

Candy

Building of the EarthTainer

Herb seeds

Well all those seeds that I planted in the shoe rack haven't germinated yet. Its been two weeks so I don't think they will. Maybe it got too cold out for them, or they weren't kept moist enough. So much for beginners luck. So now I am trying a greenhouse. We bought a couple Jiffy mini greenhouses. You add water to the peat and they expand and then you plant your seeds. And you then put the clear cover on them. I have them on top of the fridge as its warm there and it's close to a light. So we will see how they do. I have done 50 of them. I hope that works better as a seed starter. I can always buy started plants if it doesn't work and keep trying different seed starting methods till I find one that works. Direct outdoors didn't work (maybe to cold) so now I am trying indoors. I planted Chives, Basil, Parsley, Spring Onion, Hot Peppers, Mint and Dill.

We also bought window boxes and have them on the ledge of the balcony. We were able to fit 6 of them. We planted two of them yesterday. It snowed a bit today but it wasn't below 0 degrees. I did cover them with towels as that is what I could find quickly. Hopefully the seeds still germinate. I mixed red/green lettuce, spicy salad leaves, rocket mix and summer savory (herb). I added them to an empty container and mixed them all together. And I sprinkled them over two of the window boxes. This way we have a mixed salad ready to go. Guess we will find out how it tastes once it grows. Some of them I am unsure of how they taste so we will see how they taste together. I plan to wait a few weeks and then plant more in one or two other containers so that they will be ready one after the other. If they are all ready at the same time we won't be able to eat it all and we don't want to waste.

Jay has found an instructable on how to make an EarthTainer. I will post pictures of them once he has them built. This way we will have some self watering containers that we can keep on the balcony. We are able to fit quite a lot of gardening space onto or balcony. So you really don't need a lot of space to do gardening, which is healthier for you and cheaper then having to buy your veggies year round. So as you can see we had a pretty busy weekend and we aren't done yet. We plan to buy some more vegetables to put in the newly built containers and the window boxes.

Love,
Candy

Herbs

Well on Sunday April 4th I planted some herbs outside on our balcony. We bought two door hanging shoe racks and we are using that to plant some of our herbs. There are 24 pockets on each so that is 48 total. Hopefully they will get enough sun where we have them. The weather has been so warm that I decided we should start some now as we are unlikely to get any frost. And if they do call for it hopefully we can figure out how to bring them inside without disturbing them too much.
I have started with 3 herbs. I planted Dill, Basil and Chives. On the bottom row I planted 4 Dill plants above that 4 Basil and then 4 chives. And then I did that in reverse up to the top. The Dill can grow between 60-90 cm so it's pretty tall. I wasn't sure if by planting it on the bottom if it would shade the ones above it or not. And with being at the top it may be hard to tend. So by having them in both spots I will see which works best and then I will know for next year. Basil grows 30-60 cm and the Chives 25 cm.

This morning when I woke up it was raining and I thought I should try and collect some rain water. Rain water is the best water for plants as it's the most natural. So I am going to have to remember to keep an eye on the weather and when they call for rain put some containers out for rain collection. It's supposed to be a fairly rainy week so hopefully I can get a decent amount for the herbs. It's hard to collect as there is a balcony above ours which blocks a lot of the rain from landing on ours. It also of course has a railing around it which is hard to get containers under which is where most of the rain lands. I cut an old yogurt container so that half of it fits under the lower rail and the other half doesn't. I figure that way it won't fall off the balcony. I also put a bigger container in the corner where some rain does land. I will see how they both work and go from there.

Love
Candy