I don't have much of a green thumb but luckily my husband and daughter do! This spring my husband, Edwin, planted tomatoes from seed. Aimee on the other hand was more resourceful and used the seeds out of a freshly cut bell pepper and planted that. Check out the picture of these both growing well beside our window. The tall one is the tomato plant.
Definitely sprouts happening!
Since our watermelon seeds never sprouted, Edwin and Aimee are trying again and are taking Dinah's advice and are soaking them in water first. It's a friendly competition with Aimee using her bell pepper seed method by putting the seeds in a ziplock bag with a moist piece of paper towel. Edwin, on the other hand is soaking his seed in a bowl of water. Both seem to be doing well so far!
Wonderful journey creating your own garden. We started as well using an UV light. We just planted over the weekend and hoping to watch the seeds grow (i.e., soy beans). :-)
Obviously you have fertile soil!Our "lawn" area is much reduced over the years. We have a lot of shade from the trees we planted and so our vegetable plot was replaced with a native plant /pollinator garden, thanks to the City of Richmond Hill's "Healthy Yards" program. Check it out.
However I do want SOME grass . The lockdown gave me the time and motivation to reseed. I researched, and discovered a product called Enviroseed. It is a mix of meadow style grasses with deep roots which require little water or fertilization, once established. After considerable sweat equity, a hefty financial investment in seed and the advice plus equipment loan from a friend who is a landscaper; it is starting to grow.
Now I am champing at the bit to start on the community garden. We have the go-ahead from the City,in principal; but need to complete administrative details before we can begin working (social distancing, of course). Frustrating as the season begins to take flight! The community garden is in Richmond Hill, The Forster Collective Garden. Take a look at the website!
This weekend was backyard clean up. Wow, if our garden vegetables and herbs grow as well as our grass, I'll be extremely happy!
And just to put it in perspective, here is the grass with Mocha sitting in front of it.
Yes, the grass is actually taller than our dog!!!!
Yes, BUT in a pot!!!!! It spreads like crazy. You can , later on, bury the pot in soil or keep it just outside your kitchen door for easy access all summer.
Problem is, it needs to be refreshed as it wears off. I have heard that palmolive soap works, button personal experience.
Yeah, appeared twice! Patience is a virtue......apparently!😇
2nd try. Maybe it will appear twice 🙄. Putting plants outside to harden. Left them out too long and they got a bit sunburned !
Also squirrels will mess with them. Peppermint essential oil on cloth seems to deter them.
The Forster Collective Garden is waiting for the all clear from the City. 🤔Could take a while. If and when that happens. I hope to plant my materials outside there.👩🌾👨🌾
Here they are! Hoping that I will soon here that the City will permit the Forster Collective garden to open. It's in the works. Then I will try to plant these outside there.
When I put my plants out to harden, the squirrels mess with them. Cloth or tissue soaked in peppermint essential oil seems to deter them!
Good luck with all these vegetables, everyone!
Our radishes and lettuce are also coming along though more slowly. But our watermelon are still not showing any signs of life.
The mung beans are also shooting up.
Well, it seems that planting seeds from food works really well - check out Aimee's bell peppers! They are growing the fastest out of all our plants.
Thought I would post pictures of how our veggies are doing. One week after we planted. All of them seem to be starting to sprouting except for the watermelon. I was so surprised to see how quickly they have started!
Brilliant idea, collecting seeds from food in the frig. I may just give that a try myself!
For a pineapple: next time you buy one, twist the top off. Put it in water, until you get roots starting to grow, then plant. Definitely a tropical plant, so protect your plant from frost. Each plant yields one pineapple only, but a fun project! Good luck!
Wow, that's awesome Carrie! You have a good variety of plants going there.
I started some tomato seedlings myself as well. I planted these a couple of weeks ago and this is what I have now:
I am actually quite impressed with the results because half of these came from seeds that I saved from my garden last year. It was my first time saving my own tomato seeds and I wasn't expecting it to be this successful :) Another surprise with this is.... I forgot to write down what kind of tomato seeds on one of the batches so I get to find out what they are later on :D
So the rest of the seedlings came from store-bought seeds. How can I not show you the seeds when the packets have such pretty pictures?
Unfortunately, the Pineapple hasn't sprouted yet since being planted 2 weeks ago so the chance of it sprouting later is getting slim. Oh well, I am just hoping the ones I have will survive because I haven't had much success in previous years (I either started the seedlings too late or I forgot to water them).
More updates later. Stay tuned!
Today, Edwin and Aimee were busy planting our seeds to get our backyard garden started. Some of these will go in our backyard planters, and if we manage to buy some straw bales, we will also plant some of these vegetables in the bales. It will be interested to compare how they grow.
In this first picture, you will see Aimee is using chopsticks to dig holes for the seeds.
And here is all the result of all their hard work!
And what was I doing while they were busy planting? I was taking the pictures! And making chai spiced banana bread. 😀
We are being very ambitious this growing season with plans on growing lots of different vegetables. And yes, that is real ginger you see in the picture that Edwin is going to try and grow.