Seedlings, seedlings everywhere!

There has been a lot of seed sowing action chez moi lately. Almost every weekend I find myself sitting on my dining room floor with the seedling tray on a towel and dirt and seeds and water everywhere. Looking at it, you'd think a toddler had gotten into the gardening supplies. I guess I'm just not a particularly neat gardener.

I know I'm starting my seedlings very early, but Boston is a little warmer than the rest of the state and everything I've read says that the last frost date should be between April 15 and April 25. And the fact that I'm container gardening and have an unheated sunroom at the front of the house facing South also helps. Boston weather means that between Monday and today we've had snow, wind gusts, and 65 degree sunshine-y days. It's a balancing act between running the plants already in their big pots (peas and kale and blueberries) out to the porch to get lots of good sun and bringing them back in quickly before the next freak of weather hits.

First it was the lettuce that I planted. It did really well, except for the few in the center that seemed to wither and die no matter what I did. After about 2 weeks in the seedling try the lettuce got transplanted into some window boxes. I had planned on putting these outside on the porch, but then the snow hit so I thought the indoor windowsill might make a better home for them right now.

After the lettuce came the swiss chard and some herbs. The chard was so neat when it came up! I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting my "Ruby Chard" to be so red so early!

After the chard sprouted came the chamomile. Again, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but those leaves were definitely not it. It's German chamomile, which is supposed to be the best for making tea, so I'm looking forward to that.

There's tons of other things in the seedling tray right now, but I'm way behind on taking photos. Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to catch up. Right now I have strawberries, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, baby bell peppers, lavender, and basil all sprouting in the seedling tray. And one surprise seed that isn't showing yet, but I'm giving it another week or so.

And what else is coming up this weekend? The Boston Flower and Garden Show!!!! (Yes, I know it's nerdy that I'm excited about this, but I'm really really looking forward to it.) This year's theme is "A Burst of Color: Celebrating the Container Garden" and while they are focusing a lot on flowers, there's TONS of workshops and lectures about vegetable container gardening too. More on that soon!

Reading Material

I've always loved to read. I spent a good portion of my childhood at the library and my mom is an elementary school librarian, so books were never hard to come by in our house.

Working full time and taking graduate level classes doesn't leave much time to read what I want to. I like the topics I read for class, but there's something less satisfying about reading when you have to do it.

Spring break was last week so I took the opportunity to procrastinate on all the coursework I had promised myself I'd complete and finally got to the pile of books I've had lying around from the library.

Actually, some of those I own, mainly the top four, but they're all good. I'll give you some mini reviews in case you're looking for some great new books to read over your "Spring Break".

The Bountiful Container - My new favorite book about container gardening. I actually got it from the library and loved it so much in the first skimming that I immediately bought it. Great advice, written in an easy to read way and some great art as well.

The second one down is actually a magazine called "Urban Farm." While a lot of their projects and ideas involve more space than I have, it's great for inspiration and I plan on keeping all the issues to pull out when I have a real yard one day.

The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible - The other reviews online make it sound like a classic. I'm not sure it's that great, but it does give lots of good information about self-watering containers, something I think I'll try next year.

Four Seasons of Orchids - Gave me reassurance that I haven't killed my orchid and also informed me that I have a winter flowering orchid that needs more light (the guy who sold it to me in the student union somehow forgot to mention what type it was).

Canning and Preserving with Ashley English - I realize this is a bit premature since right now I just have seedlings, but I was curious to see if canning was something I could do myself and Ashley's book makes it seem absolutely within reach.

Teaming with Microbes - I'll be honest, I haven't really gotten into this one much yet. Lots of people have recommended it, but it seems to be really heavy on the science terminology and I'm having a hard time getting motivated. And now that Spring Break is past me I'm not sure reading this one will happen.

37 Houseplants Even YOU Can't Kill - Interesting enough. For the really simple basics of houseplant non-killing.

The Vegetable Gardener's Book of of Building Projects - My dad is incredibly talented when it comes to woodworking, and he helped me with a woodworking 4-H project years ago so this book reminded me of him. Great range of projects from really simple things I can do in an apartment (Coming Soon!) to bench swings and arches and bird boxes.

I got through those books so quickly that I headed back to the library and got more!

These I've mostly just skimmed to far.

Incredible Edibles - It's pretty basic and I definitely think there are better books about urban gardening.

The Girl's Guide to Growing Your Own - Still not really sure why this one's gender specific. I'm fairly certain men/boys could also use these tips - but to each their own.

Growing Tasty Tropical Plants - I AM IN LOVE. And J is terrified that our apartment is going to be taken over and turned into a very high rent greenhouse. That fear may not be totally unjustified... stay tuned.

And the seed opens...

...with some help. After weeks of watching the amaryllis seed bulb get bigger and bigger and not show any sign of opening I got impatient. So I Googled a bit - because everything on the internet is obviously reliable - and discovered that the bulb should open within about 3 weeks of forming. Mine had been sitting there for two months.So I took matters into my own hands and ripped it open. I was pleasantly surprised to actually find seeds! While rather large, they were paper thin and totally black.I sorted through them; the only ones that are viable are those with a slight bump in the center, indicating a fertilized seed. There's so many seeds within the pod that not all are going to sprout.After sorting through I planted several of them. I don't have high hopes for them, but it would be neat if some grew into baby bulbs.

Tomato Update

Hi!

I had this past Friday off of work and it really kickstarted a 3-day stretch of laziness which meant no blog posts. Be assured it isn't for lack of things to write about!
Lots to come in the next few days but I wanted to share the most exciting news first.

The AeroGarden was doing well, but there were lots of flowers and nothing happening with them, so I decided to take a more pro-active approach to pollinating. Not being an artist by any means so I don't have any paintbrushes lying around, but I do like personal hygiene and I do have Q-tips. With weapon in hand I did the work of bees to my indoor tomato. And yes, I may have made buzzing noises to really get into the part.


I also took the opportunity to prune a bit by pulling out any of the V growth (is there a more technical term for it than that?) and cutting any leaves that were too close to the light and getting burnt. Yes, the tomato plant is so big it's rubbing up against the light that's already on its tallest setting.
It all must have worked because two days later J noticed this:TOMATO ALERT!!! I'm already coming up with recipes in my mind and watching it and searching for hints of orange and red. I'm hoping to have ready to eat tomatoes before Easter. Is that overly ambitious?

Garden Gifts

Look what I got in the mail!
Mom and Dad thought I should be a fashionable gardener! And I'm sure they had my super-fancy manicures in mind too. Right. I tried a manicure once. Seemed like a waste of time. A little soil looks good with the nails.

And this beast! Woah! The Soil Scoop really gets the job done. Especially in that giant block of compacted soil we got you need something serious to "fluff" it up. This little guy gets the job done. And it's so easy to make a hole for transplanting. I think it'll come in handy to get things out of the pots at the end of the season too.

Thanks mom and dad!! :)

More Fruit!

On the same theme as yesterday, I decided to try a pineapple from scratch. In this case not a seed, but from a nice organic pineapple from Whole Foods.

This technique is based off a collection of YouTube videos, so I'm not necessarily counting on success here, but it's worth a shot.

Step 1: Take a pineapple and cut the top quarter or so off.













Step 2: Cut all of the fruit meat off of the top. If you leave it on, it will just rot.














Step 3: Cut the top off in little slices until you can see the root buds, or whatever the brown things are.













Step 4: Peel off the bottom few layers of leaves.













Step 5: Let it sit out for a few days so it dries out.
This would have been a boring photo.

Step 6: Set it in a glass of water and let it grow some roots.
This photo hasn't happened yet.
Now I just have to wait and see if I get any root action!

New Seeds

So I put an order in on Ebay not too long ago for some seeds to add to my indoor plant collection.

And the winners were, cacti and tangerines. I'm saving the cacti for later, until I have a better setup, but the tangerine seeds are getting sown soon!
I gave 3 of the seeds a good soak and a shot glass seemed to be the perfect vessel to soak the seeds in.

This is the most action a shot glass has seen in my house in years. It probably enjoyed being taken out of the back of the cupboard for a change. After an overnight soak they went into the seed tray under the light. I'll keep you updated on the sprouts!