Let the hippie gardening begin!

Spring has sprung in Iowa! Actually, from what I’m reading, spring has sprung a little early everywhere this year. Temperatures have already been in the 90s, which – for us – is pretty unusual. But, combined with the mild winter, we’ve had it pretty easy so far in 2012.

That said, the farmers are worried about the lack of moisture we’ve had (no snow is not always a good thing) and people are waiting to see what the rest of the spring and summer hold. All I know is: if a warmer winter means a warmer summer, I’m toast. Humidity and I don’t get along.

Anyway, I’ve talked for quite a while about turning the enclosed front porch into my greenhouse and I’ve finally done it. For real. I ordered my seeds through a company called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (www.rareseeds.com), bought some trays so I at least look like I know what I’m doing, and raked up some soil from the backyard to get everything started. I sprinkled a little bone meal into the soil mixture to assist the plants in establishing strong roots and I check for proper moisture every morning before work. The soil should be moist but not water logged.. check it with your finger to see. If it feels dry, water it; if not, no worries. It’s also important that your trays/pots have proper drainage because the plants will rot if allowed to sit in sopping wet soil.

My greenhouse :)

So I’ve been watching these seeds like I’m going to see something. Standing there waiting for something to pop up out of the dirt. Obviously I haven’t seen anything. However, over the weekend while we were building and painting kitchen cabinets..BOOM!



I borrowed a pair of grow lights from a friend at work who isn't starting her garden from seed this year.

Nearly all of my tomato seeds have sprouted! I’m still waiting on a couple herbs to show signs of progress, but so far I’ve got all kinds of tomatoes (about 6 different varieties, actually. Would you like any tomato plants? J) carrots, basil, thyme, oregano, and a bunch of different medicinal type herbs that I’m going to play around with. I bought a book quite a while ago that talks a lot about holistic remedies for stomach aches, sore throats, acne, you name it and I’m going to give it a shot. Of course, the backyard might be so thick with tomatoes that it chokes everything else out.

A Grappoli D'Inverno - an Italian varietal cherry tomato. I chose to grow mostly cherry tomatoes in the garden because - in my experience - larger tomatoes are more prone to rot, disease, pests, etc.

I was in Des Moines yesterday for an appointment when I remembered I had a Lowe’s gift card saved back from Christmas (it’s been so long, it was like getting a new gift!) After my appointment ended, I had lunch at a little French place and stopped off at Lowe’s to see what I needed to spend free money on. I couldn’t think of anything hardware-wise that I needed immediately, so I wandered around the landscaping side for a while. I ended up with a giganto bag of mulch, a blueberry bush, and a stick that promises to one day be a Concord grape vine.

A little mulch cleaned up this corner by the side door. I pulled out some of the old daylillies and planted them elsewhere. Otherwise, I've got a couple hostas, some oregano and pineapple mint for ground cover (and kitchen use) a mystery plant, and a peony that has yet to decide if it wants to live. With the exception of the daylilly, all of these were gifts from a friend - thanks!

So while dad finished up spraying panels for the kitchen cabinets, I mulched, dug in some new plants, and used up a pile of bricks left over from the old west chimney.

There's no reason my composter can't look good on the back of the garage!

This is my backyard - all staked out and ready for planting once the seeds have gotten a little bigger. I plan to mulch the middle row and every other plot with straw so I've got room to move around in here once the tomatoes have taken over. :)

This just in: ONIONS

Earlier this spring, I stopped by a little greenhouse not far from home and picked up a few bunches of onion sets. I’m pretty sure you could grow them from seed if you had A) any time, B) any space, or C) the equipment..benches, grow lights, etc. Since I don’t have any of those things, I buy sets.

These sets are tiny little onions waiting to be unleashed. By the time you buy them at the nursery, they can be anywhere up to the diameter of a pencil. Once the soil is warm enough, plant your mini-pencil-onions about 6 inches apart from one another and cover with dirt. We’ve learned that the spacing really is important, and for a very simple reason: if your onions are planted too close together they won’t grow to be very large. Which is fine – that way you can use an entire onion all at once rather than have half of a giganto onion floating around in the fridge.

Anyway, our old neighbor (the one I wrote about a while back) always said that your onions should never see the August sun – otherwise they start to get hot. Which means – in light of all the work we’ve been doing on the house – July 31^st was harvest day!

We had white, red, yellow, Texas sweets, and a variety called candy. Because I am a master gardener, I completely neglected to label the different varieties. Red and white I’ve got; otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, there are three different sizes of yellow onions. J

Because we planted so many, we had so many to give away. My grandparents got a batch; my bosses took several; the couple helping with my house got a bag full.. And we’ve still got onions. Lots, actually. Which is awesome because they’ll keep in the basement through the winter. Leave them dirty in a cool, dark place and they’ll keep as long as we need them to – usually they’re gone before any have the chance to spoil.

Happy Tuesday!