Time For Planting Alyssum and Dill Indoors

The sun is out longer and daylight savings has occurred it is time to start planting flowers indoors and getting them the head start that is needed.  My two favorite flowers will include alyssum and dill.  They are simple to grow and don't take that much maintenance to keep them thriving through the whole season.

The best part of growing them is that they are fast sprouting and should begin growing within a week.  This is pretty much the opposite of the spinach that I planted a week ago.  They take quite a while to begin sprouting and will probably not show signs of sprouting until another week or two. 

I place my flowers in the window instead of using fluorescent lights.  I find that I can maximize space by using large plastic containers and placing them on the window and saving electricity at the same time as well.  They do not require that much light and what they receive on the windowsill will be enough for the time being.

I will probably leave them their for about a month until the weather gets warmer and then begin placing them outside to get acclimated to the weather and temperatures.  For now they will stay on the windowsill unless I need room for my vegetables and fruits later on.

The Garden Season Starts with Spinach

Every year I begin the season with growing spinach indoors in order to give them a good head start to the new season.  I have found that this is a good way to begin because it is always the same for the most part.  This year I am trying something new with my spinach plants that I think will be very beneficial in the long run.

One of the best strategies that you can use when growing spinach indoors or outdoors is to soak them in water for 24 hours and then try planting them.  I never did this before because I didn't think that this would help in germination.

I decided that this season I would try it and see what would happen.  The theory is that these seeds have a tough shell and in order to soften the shell you would soak them in water.  This will allow for better and increased germination.  This is only a theory and one that I am going to test this season.  I have 24 pots that I will be using for growing spinach.  This means that I should have 24 plants to transplant into the garden.

I planted spinach seeds in 12 containers today and placed them under the lights for faster germination.  The other seeds are in a container being soaked and I will plant them tomorrow in the afternoon.  Noon time is when I placed them in a container of water.  You should soak them for 24 hours.  I will see if this simple technique helps with germination.  I like to put at least four to five seeds in each container as this will increase the chances of getting at least one of the five to sprout.

This year I am also going to be using sifted soil that I created from my worm composting.  I used this last year, but instead of sifting it I just placed them in the pots.  This year I worked out a way to sift all the good soil without getting of the worms into the soil.  Hopefully all the good nutrients and worm castings got through.  I will know in a couple of weeks whether or not the sifting was a good idea.

I will also be starting to grow flowers pretty soon such as alyssum, dill, sunflowers, cosmos, calendula, and many more.  Make sure to check back to this blog and find out what is happening with my garden plants.

It is Now 2015 and Time To Get Seeds for The Year

It is always important that I get new seeds each year so that I will have the best germination rate among all the seeds that are planted.  I don't like using old seeds unless they are seeds that I have collected myself from the previous year.  Other than that using new seeds will give you a much better start to the season.

Going through all the seeds that I have is what I do in the beginning of the year before the season starts and is an important part of knowing exactly what you have and what you need.  I keep track of this in my garden journal which I recommend everyone using because it will become invaluable in the future.

There are two seeds that I save each season which includes cantaloupe and corn.

The seeds above are what I will be using this season and will save on costs not having to purchase extra corn seeds for the year.  The same thing goes with the cantaloupe seeds as well.  As long as they are dried properly then they should grow each and every year.  They also have to be heirlooms because hybrids will not work the next season and will most likely be sterile and give a poor harvest.

Like every year I like to try something new.  Last year I tried out celery which didn't come out that bad, but I think a better variety is what I will be doing this season.  Besides a new type of celery I am also going to grow the Ruby Glow romaine lettuce hybrid.  This has a much darker color and is packed with nutrients that will be great for any salad that is made this year.

Just Finished the Season by Digging Up Carrots and Celery

I wasn't sure if I was going to get that many carrots since the season didn't look very promising in the very beginning of 2014.  It was a relief when I finally dug up my carrots and saw that many of them were large in size as compared to what I had received last season.

Last year I got more carrots, but they were not as big as they were this season.  I would rather have larger carrots of high quality rather than quantity.  This is what organic gardening is all about and is why I subscribe to this particular way of thinking.

Here are some carrots that I took pictures of while digging them out of the ground.

I collected about a basket full of these vegetables.  Once I cut the tops off and placed them on the scale they weighed about 33 pounds.  Very good for a season that didn't look too good.  I was definitely happy with this harvest of carrots.

Two pound carrots were also picked up that I thought I would share with you.

Both of these carrots on the left each weighed over two pounds making them the largest carrots of this season.










Celery was also another vegetable that I collected towards the end of the season when they began to stop growing.  They looked like they were ready for harvest so I picked them just before I did the carrots on Thanksgiving day.

I didn't collect much celery because of the seeds that didn't grow in the garden earlier this year.  I was happy just to collect any celery as you can see from the picture.  These were a couple of the larger ones that I got and totaled six pounds.








This season is now over and nothing is left in the garden except for some flowers that will last through most of December depending on the temperatures that we get during the month.  I will probably be writing less frequently until 2015 rolls around and it is time for another garden season.

Some More Pole Beans and All Pumpkins Harvested

I decided that I would wait until the day before Halloween to pick all the pumpkins that I grew this summer.  They usually are able to last through the outside elements due to their tough skin.  This past Thursday I went outside and picked all six of them and it wasn't that difficult.  The plants were dead at this point and all I had to do was break them of the vine.

I also carved a couple of them for the holiday using a simple tracing pattern that you can purchase in any store.  I think they came out pretty good.

Today I also picked the very last of the pole beans that have been producing beans until the end of the season.  I was surprised that they would last this long since they started out very poorly in the very beginning of the season.

The plants are dead so I am sure that I will not be getting any more beans.  Here you can see for yourself.