First Seeds are in the Dirt!

Oh happy day!  I planted the first of my seeds for the 2014 gardening seasoning.  Unfortunately, I ran out of seed starting soil so will need to finish up the rest of the onion seeds tomorrow.  A few days ago I received a large order of seeds from Botanical Interest...it was like Christmas in January.  Today I went through each packet, with a calendar, and marked which date each seed is started or needs to go into the ground.  I feel so organized!

Today I planted:

Cauliflower ~ Chef's Choice Blend
Onion ~ Red Amposta

Tomorrow, after I get more seed starting soil, I will plant a tray of:

Onions ~ Yellow Granex

Thankfully Mike is building me another grow light and hauled in an 8' table...he could tell by the box of seeds I got that we were in for a bigger season of gardening. 

Botanical Interests

 

 

Chef's Choice Blend Cauliflower & Red Amposta Onion

 

Not blogging...but I am gardening!

I have not been blogging at all.  I have been gardening, crafting, vacationing...but not blogging.  I will also admit to not couponing much at all.  In fact, I just cancelled our newspaper subscription.  So for now...here are some pictures of my garden as of today:

 

This is my potato bed.  I am growing red and purple potatoes.  In another bed I am also getting some "volunteer" potatoes which are probably russets.  I decided not to grow russet potatoes because I can buy them so cheap around here and I wanted to devote more room for other things.

I grew broccoli this year and was pretty successful.  I have a couple of gallon sized bags of frozen broccoli which I will use in the fall and winter to make soup...yum!  Hopefully I will get a bit more before long.  I will also be putting more seeds in the ground soon so I hope to have more in a few months.

Carrots, lettuce, kale and spinach.  I also had radishes here...but we ate those all gone already!  I want to get more carrots in...it's on my to-do-list.

Nestled in with my broccoli is some cauliflower.  It is looking good!  I have never been successful with cauliflower before but I may have done something right this year.  I have closed the leaves over the head of cauliflower to keep it from burning.  Hopefully we will be eating some in the next week or two.

Nestle next to lettuce and kale is the "volunteer" potatoes and some corn.  I tried to start my corn inside this year...didn't work so good.  The seeds that I put directly in the soil outside are looking good.  This is an indian type corn and will be used for decorating...not eating.

I planted a TON of garlic with hopes of making braided garlic for family members...but that was before my naughty dogs dug most of it up.  I will be harvesting most of the garlic tomorrow...and I hope to have enough for me until next year.  I tried growing this same garlic two years in a row...and I am not to impressed.  I will try something new in the fall.

I have a few tomatoes...but not many.  I hope my plants hurry up ~ I have LOT's of plans for my tomatoes. 

I love this section.  I have peas growing up the fence section and the rest is a variety of pumpkins and zucchini's.

Pretty Peas!

One zucchini...I bet there's more to come!

Getting my second round of strawberries for this season.

My greenhouse rocks!  It has two cucumber plans, 3 containers of basil...

and on the other side of the greenhouse I have jalapeneos, red peppers, yellow peppers and cilantro!  It sounds like salsa in the making!

How Many Days Until Spring?

The last couple of days have been all about the dirt.  With daylight savings time...I am now able to enjoy some sunlight for a few hours after work ~ loving it!  On Sunday my hubby and I went to the Home & Garden Show at the Everett Comcast Arena.  We were really disappointed with it as a whole.  Normally these shows give us some inspiration but there wasn't much to inspire us at this show.  However, I did not leave empty handed...I brought home 3 plants that they were selling for 1/2 price....unfortunately, I don't know the name of them.  They look pretty though.

On Monday, after work, I planted those 3 plants, did some weeding and tried a new trick to try to get cats to stop using my flower bed as a litter box.  IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!  Those dang cats poop in my flower bed right by the front door...and it just isn't right.  So...I recently read about how lemons may do the trick to break this mean cat behavior.  My favorite blog, 100 Dollars a Month posted about 10 Cool Uses for Lemons ~ and #10 was about sprinkling lemon peels in the area...because apparently cats don't like the smell of citrus! I bought 5# of lemons from Cash and Carry...grinded those suckers up and am praying that it works.

Today (Tuesday)...the wind was howling and the rain was falling but I still got to garden.  I moved my cauliflower, broccoli and onion starts out to the greenhouse.  I think I saved my cauliflower and broccoli...they got very leggy but I transplanted them deep in new containers and I see new leaves popping out. 

I also planted some new vegetable starts:

Stupice Tomtatoes (first round of tomatoes) (from Territorial Seed Co.)
Impatiens ~ Tempo butterly Mix (from Territorital Seed Co.)
Basil ~ Sweet Basil (Ferry-Morse)
Sweet Red Peppers ~ Crispy Hybrid (Burpee)
Early Jalapeno ~ Hot Pepper (Territorial Seed Co.)
Sweet Yellow Peppers ~ Fort Knox Hybrid (Burpee)

Now my bar is filled with the second round of starts...I wonder if other people use their bars for growing plants??!!

Onions Seeds Planted! Garlic is Growing...

About two weeks ago I planted my onions.  Currently I have about 200 onion starts growing under the light.  I bought the seeds through the Territorial Seed Company.  Here are the two types I decided on this year:

Ruby Ring Hybrid Sweet Spanish Onion (red onion)     
Milestone Hybrid Sweet Onion

I am not sure why I chose two sweet onions...but I do remember choosing them for their storage longevity.  I would really love to not buy onions ever again.

 

             Next up:  Garlic

Last fall I planted 50 garlic bulbs...and all 50 are sprouting.  Love it!  But even better, while I was working in the garden a couple of days ago (when we had the most beautiful day I have ever seen in February) I found a bunch more garlic growing.  I must have left some garlic behind last year.  I dug them up, separated the starts and replanted them...bringing my total up to 73 cloves of garlic growing in my yard.  If it all grows, every family member will be getting a garlic braid next Christmas!

 

  And finally:                                                       

I filled the planter, by the front door, with double ruffled primroses.  It was the perfect way to celebrate a sunny, blue sky day in February (and the fact that I was able to take a vacation day from work and putter in my yard instead).

Garlic in the Ground, Tomatoes out of the Ground and Tulip Bulbs Planted

Before the rains invaded the Pacific Northwest...I got 50 cloves of garlic in the ground!  I love the garlic I grew last year and look forward to having some to share next year. 

 

Silverskin Garlic ~ Silver Rose

 

 

I ignored my tomatoes, I didn't water them, they were trampled on while our house was being painted and yet...they still grew for me.  Granted, had they been treated with a bit more love and respect, I would have had a much larger yield ~ but I was pleasantly surprised.  I had enough to can some salsa and put several gallon sized freezer bags full of fresh tomatoes into the freezer to use later to make pizza sauce.

 

My first attempt at canning salsa turned out well. I used my own grown tomatoes, onions, garlic and jalapeno's for this salsa.  My goal is to make enough next year that I won't

have to buy salsa for an entire year.  Baby steps!

 

 

 

How do you get your hubby to help you garden?...buy him a gardening bit to put on his cordless drill.  It was amazing how enthusiastic he got when I showed him that new toy!

 

 

This drill bit made fast work of my 68 tulip bulbs!

 

 

My first attempt at braiding garlic...isn't it beautiful!??





Damn Dogs

Two yorkies...they are on my naughty list!

Not only did they do a bunch of digging in my garden bed...they then walked throughout the entire house dumping my garden dirt along the way.  I am still not speaking to them.

My Garden Update

This year I have had to take the attitude of..."whatever happens, happens...when it comes to my garden.  My knee has prevented me from doing weekend gardening marathons.  I can usually putt around the yard for an hour or two but then I start to feel the ache in my knee.  I am getting quite creative in how I kneel down to plant...I just hope no one can see me because I am sure I look a bit foolish.

Today I planted some seeds that should have been put in the ground a couple of weeks ago...but again...whatever happens, happens!  Here is what I did:

Here is what I planted...another row of spinach ( I LOVE this spinach), corn (decorative), lettuce (I LOVE this particular lettuce blend as well), 1 row of carrots (by my broccoli), and some beets.

This bed has my garlic, onions, 5 strawberry plants, 3 blueberry plants,

spinach, lettuce, radishes and some peas.

This bed has a few more onions, a couple of miniature red pepper plants, broccoli, corn (decorative), beets and I planted some more lettuce and spinach behind the artichoke plant.

An entire bed of tomatoes ~ I started these all from seed.  I am curious to see how these do.  This location does not get a lot of sun though it gets lots of heat.  Our trailer is parked right along the side this bed so it blocks the sun.  I am crossing my fingers that I get tomatoes.

This smaller bed is FULL of pumpkins and gourds.  In the center is a giant pumpkin plant and surrounding that are mini pumpkins and gourds.  I am sure these will all cross-contaminate so this is an experimental planting!

Paid $15.04 for $80.65 worth of Groceries!

Happy Memorial Day!  We were lucky enough to spend a couple of nights on Whidby Island.  My hubby and I took our favorite youngest daughter to a drive-in movie...SO MUCH FUN!  The drive-in was in Oak Harbor and was the cutest place.  While waiting we rode go carts and enjoyed munching on 50 cent hotdogs.  We watched Men in Black III.  To be honest with you...I don't care what movie we would have watched...just being there was great and it was a "first" for Cassidy. 

I am slow getting this coupon blog written...but better late then never.  Last week I took advantage of Albertsons double coupons.  After not couponing for almost 8 weeks...it felt good to get some grocery bargains.  It is very satisfying to pay only $15.04 for $80.65 worth of groceries ~ a 81% savings.  Here's what I bought:

Summer time is coming up...and we love our smores around here.  By utilizing a sale and using double coupons, I paid $2.94 for all 6 bags of marshmallows.  Full price was $13.14...77% savings.

I ran out of shampoo...so I was happy to see shampoo on sale ~ and have a coupon for it.  **There should be 3 candy bars in this picture. 

Retal: $9.83   Paid: $2.47  ~  74% Savings!

Retail: $5.87  Paid: $1.29  ~  78% Savings

and...6 more bags of marshmallows. 

Retail: $13.14  Paid: $2.94  ~  77% Savings

Yahoo...I am stocked back up with Sweet Baby Rays, our family favorite. 

Retail: $27.90  Paid: $3.90  ~  86% Savings!!!!!

I loves these for breakfast...add a piece of fruit and a cup of coffe

and I am good for a few hours.

Retail: $10.77  Paid: $1.50  ~  86% Savings!!!!!

Four weeks ago I had a total knee replacement.  I feel like life is just starting to get back to normal.  Today I went back to work...though I am only working 1/2 days for a couple of weeks.  I am also chomping at the bit to get some gardening done.  Unfortunately, I will be limited in my gardening activities for a couple of months...no getting on my hands and knees and digging in the dirt.  Fortunately, I have a son-in-law and a couple of daughters that will be helping me out in the garden...though I don't sense a whole lot of excitment on their end! 

Oh well!

Today I moved most of my starts into the greenhouse...I am so hoping that they don't die!  It has warmed up here so I think they will be safe.  Here is what is out in the greenhouse now:

Impatiens...if you look closely you can see small flower buds!

These are my miniature red pepper plants.  I will soon be repotting
these in some big plastic pails.  I am going to keep these in the greenhouse
and hope that it works.  With our climate in Everett, WA...it normally does
not get hot enough for long enough to produce good peppers.  Maybe growing
them in the greenhouse will do the trick.

My tomato plants are now in the greenhouse and getting "hardened" off. 
Most of these plants will be going into the garden in a few weeks but I am also
going to grow a few in the greenhouse...to see what happens. 
I love experimenting.

My cucumbers...these are designed to grow specifically in a
greenhouse.  I will be planting another container of these tomorrow.

Here's how the greenhouse looked tonight.  By the end of the week
there will be more plants added and changes made...stay tuned.

A Few More Seeds in the Ground

The good news...I planted some more seeds.  I got some onion bulbs (40+), spinach, lettuce, radishes and peas into the ground tonight ~ just one 3' row of each (more space for the onion bulbs).  I will be putting more rows in every few weeks.

What I planted:

Spinach ~ Bloomsdale, Long Standing (Ferry~Morse)
Lettuce ~ Pot & Patio Lettuce Blend (Territorial Seed Company)
Radishes ~ Cherry Belle (Ferry~Morse)
Peas ~ Organic Cascadia Bush Snap Pea (Seeds of Change)
Yellow Onion Bulbs (Lowes)

The bad news...the cauliflower, broccoli and kale starts I planted yesterday look very, very bad.  In fact, they look dead.  That scares me.  Is the compost too fresh?  It is not supposed to be.  Was it too soon to plant them?  It wasn't supposed to be.  I don't know...it makes me a little bit ill.  I will be keeping my eye on them.  Worse thing would be that I would need to buy some starts...but I really wanted to try to plant most things by seed.  But I have found through the years that gardening is not a perfect scenario...at least for me.

Here are some pics:

My work space...

My dying starts????

40+ (I lost count) yellow onion bulbs in the ground.  I still have my walla walla and red onion starts that I been trying to baby...but boy I will do things differently next year in regards to those, they are not looking so hot.

Peas, Radishes, Lettuce and Spinach in the ground...so cannot wait for those!

My hydrangea's are looking really good this year.  A couple of years ago I cut them back hard, not knowing any better and they looked pretty bad last year.  It looks like they have recovered.

My peonies are coming up.  I LOVE peonies.  I have tried over the years to grow these but they never thrived.  Now I have three that like where I put them and keep getting bigger and better each year.