Random

So I'm a little behind on getting photos up, so I thought Sunday would be a good day to put up random photos.

The potatoes are still taking off like rockets! You can see a hint of purple in the leaves. I wonder if the flowers will be purple too.Our Ruby Chard is so pretty! That color is amazing - especially when the sun hits it in the evening.
J is wicked excited about all the peas on our plants.
And the passionfruit has been put outside and really seems to love the sun. The leaves got a lot darker.
And two weekends ago, we undertook our first adventure in canning - strawberry jam. It turned out pretty well, but I don't have many photos. Since it was our first time trying, it was mostly us running around and reading the instructions and making sure the jam didn't boil over (note to self: use a bigger pot next time).


Now we've got a boatload of strawberry jam. So if you're friends or family let us know if you want some and we'll mail it out!

Cold Weather Plants

There are a few things I planted quite a while ago, but I don't think I've mentioned them here since. All the cold weather plants are loving the cool Spring we're having. At least something likes it.
My kale is finally starting to take off. I think I transplanted it too soon from the seedling tray, and I think I was keeping it too warm at first. It didn't look like it was going to make it for a while, but it's pulled through and seems to be enjoying the greenhouse. I keep the door of the greenhouse open all the time, unless we have a frost warning, so it gets the cool temperatures at night and doesn't get overheated during the day.
The peas are really slow growing. I guess I expected they'd be larger now. How long after sowing should they start flowering? According to my records, these peas were planted 1/22 and sprouted 1/27, but they still seem tiny for being 3 months old, no? I've also added a few more seeds in to keep them going - yay succession planting. One round of seeds on 3/11 and another round last weekend, so I'm hoping they'll do better. The second and third set also got inoculant, so hopefully that will help.
Spinach and carrots are still small, but growing strong. Can't wait for a delicious salad! And speaking of salad, my very sad looking outdoor lettuce is looking decidedly less sad lately. It might even be ready for eating soon. Sorry there's no photo of that.

Transplanting Peas

The peas were getting huge. I knew it was time to transplant them to a larger container. We apparently sowed them just a bit too early so they'll be living inside just a little longer. I'll still have to acclimate them to the outdoors eventually, but right now we still can't get our porch door open because of the GIANT snow bank in front of it, so that's not going to be happening soon.

We got the pot - one of the MANY five-gallon black plastic pots from Griffin - and filled it with our fluffed up soil (that we mixed with some of our fertilizer in a big trash can) and wet it down. Then we gently massaged the seedlings out of their tray. I was thrilled to see some extensive root structure, but was a little shocked at how dry the soil was, despite my regular watering.

We used the dowel rods to create a trellis to give the pea shoots some support. I think some plain dowels and a hair band make a pretty awesome trellis, no?
Since we had six plants and 3 dowels, it made sense to put two by each dowel to offer support. Planting, watering and we're all set!

Oh, and I put some of those fertilizer stakes we bought in. The package suggested putting in 6 around each plant. Gosh, can't imagine why they suggest that you use so many all at once. Couldn't be so you run out and need to go buy more of their product, right? Whatever. I put a few in around the dowels and called it a day.

Right now they'll be living in the front room by our big picture window to get the light and hopefully they can move outside in about 2 weeks. We'll see how they grow!

5 Days Later

The seed packet days peas take 10-15 days to sprout.

I must have some seriously over-achieving peas.

It's only been five days!

Sowing Peas

Since the seeds arrived it was time to figure out when I needed to sow them indoors for them to be ready for outdoors. Some seeds can be directly sown outdoors in the pot, but others are needy and want some time inside with a grow light and heat pad.

I'm all about pampering my plants, so I headed to Amazon.com to pick out a grow light and heat lamp. I didn't want anything huge since I'm only growing enough for my patio, and I didn't want a light that would suck electricity like mad - don't need the cops showing up asking why my house is causing a spike in the electrical grid... "Officer, it's just tomatoes and peppers, I swear!"

We also got seed starter mix which is a lot lighter than potting soil so that tiny baby roots aren't suffocated. Yup, plants need air just as much as light and water!

Grow Great Grub had a table in the back to fill out based on the last frost in your area (for Boston it's generally considered to be around April 15th). Then you work backwards on how long the seeds take to germinate indoors, how long it will take them to grow to a good size indoors, and then when they can be put outside.

Most of the plants we're doing this summer can't be outside until after the last frost, so we aren't planting much for a while, but there is one plant that likes the cold. In fact, this plant will stop producing food once it gets too warm. Peas!!

Not surprisingly, pea seeds just look like dehydrated peas. Using the instructions on the back of the seed envelope I planted, watered, turned on the light and the heat pad and put on the top to create a greenhouse effect. It increases the humidity and warmth. Time to let the seeds work their magic.