First Seeds of 2014 Season

Hi all! It may seem like an odd time to get garden seeds, but we have acquired our first seeds of the season. We have 59 days until the first day of Spring, and I am pumped! The seeds we purchased will need to be started soon so that we can grow them in our zone. (Zone 6A)

I purchased these seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, one of my favorite places! Baker Creek always includes some free seeds so, that's why the melons are included. 

We'll be starting seeds soon, so check back for seed starting extravaganza! Thanks for reading!

The Dairy Aisle

Hi all! For me, the only thing better than recycling and gardening, is recycling in the garden. I've stated many ways in previous posts how this can be done, but this post is a special highlight of a certain section in the grocery store. The Dairy Aisle. It's not just for making strong bones or breakfast anymore! 

When incorporating recycling into your garden, look no further than the dairy aisle. It is chock full of great items you can reuse.

My Projects:

1.   Drain contents from an egg through a small pinhole, carefully rinse, and allow to dry. Now use for decorations. They can be painted, speckled, and more!

2.   Cut a milk jug into a scoop. Use your new scoop for potting soil, feed, etc.

3.   Compost your spent egg shells. They are great for putting calcium into the soil.

4.   Use empty egg cartons for starting seeds. 

5.   Using a large gauge needle heated by a flame (don't burn yourself) carefully poke holes into a milk jug lid. Now you have a watering can!

Projects to Try:

1.   Use broken egg shells to start seeds in.

2.   Cut a milk jug not quite completely in half, fill with soil, and use as a mini greenhouse.

3.   Cut the bottom off of a jug and use as a cloche to keep your seedlings and transplants protected from the elements.

Be creative! What have you tried? 

Thanks for reading!

I'm Spring-ing Forward...How About You?

Hi all! We had a beautiful weekend here in Southern Ohio and we changed the clocks for Daylight Savings Time.  I can't even begin to tell you how giddy it makes me to know that spring is knocking on our door!  There is so much to do, but I'm so excited!

I decided to share some of the things we had going on during the lovely weekend. I had to work all weekend,  but Mitch and Toby enjoyed the weather for me. They had plenty of 4 wheeler riding, we grilled out and ate outside.  Mitch also managed to do some productive things for me. He made our chickens their first set of nest boxes out of some scrap lumber. I just love how rustic they look.  Take a peek:

He also got my early veggie garden tilled up so we can plant soon. We put this one up close to the house since our big back garden was too soggy and sloppy to work yet. I am hoping for a nice calm day so I can plant some seeds. My transplants aren't big enough yet, as they are just now beginning to get their first true leaves. We have begun to get a few peppers and tomatoes to sprout, but they won't be ready to go out until sometime in April! Here is the garden pre-planting:

We have some daffodils (at least that's what I think they are) popping up all over our yard. I've never seen daffodils in such odd ball places, but we've got them here. They are getting little buds all over them, which means....we'll have pretty little yellow flowers very soon!

Tractor Supply has got their chick days and garden event going on right now. We walked in there and I was in heaven! If you'd like to see or show your kids some cute little chicks and ducklings, they've got them there.  Cheap entertainment!  And, if you needed another reason to plant SOMETHING this year (as if) they've got some good prices and great stuff...just sayin'.

And finally, I would like to close with a link to my friend's blog Homegrown on the Hill. She has a post about how It's not too late! to still get a start on spring growing!

Thanks for reading! Come back soon for some ideas on small gardens and container gardening.

Chicken and Plant Updates-4 weeks

Hi all! We've been busy here on our little farm. Our seedlings are growing and I do believe our house is looking rather like a plant nursery. We've got so many seeds started. We should be planting sometime soon. We've just got to grow out some more little leaves. (Grow, baby grow!)

I'm anxious for some warm weather. I don't know about the weather anywhere else, but here in Southern Ohio we are being teased with lovely spring-like weather, then slapped with a couple of inches of snow. Dang Punxsutawney Phil tricked me into thinking we were gonna have some awesome, early spring.

Mitch holding a meat chicken to show how big they are already!

On another note, our chickens are a month old now, and growing fast! I gave them their first treats (oats, strawberries, and carrots), but alas, the chickens were not entirely impressed. They love to escape the brooder. They can often be caught now roosting on the sides of it. The meat chickens are growing so much and looking (dare I say it?) yummier and juicier! Hehe. We've set a date for chicken processing (fancy name for chicken slaughter). We will be "taking care of" our 4 Jumbo Cornish X Rocks on March 30. I know! Crazy, right? I'm nervous and excited. They will be 7 weeks old. I can't wait to see how much they weigh.  

That's about it for now, at least until we can start planting. What's going on at your house as we gear up for spring?

Thanks for reading!

Legginess

Hi all! I promised a post on legginess and I'm here to deliver!

Now when I say leggy, I don't mean a great pair of gams. Leggy, as in leggy plants, means the stems of the plants become very thin and tall. Seeds are packed only with enough energy to germinate. Once the seed heads begin to poke out of the soil, the seed has pretty much used up it's energy stores and begins looking for light to provide the much needed energy. Developing seedlings require a lot of energy which means a lot of light.

Growing seedlings actually require a bit more light than comes through most south or east facing windows. Many hardcore gardeners (you know, the ones with leather jackets that keep gardening spades in the pockets...hehe) use complex set-ups and systems for providing light. But...folks like myself who are just starting out or can't afford such things, there's still hope for those spindly little suckers.

Brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and cabbage tend to be more prone to legginess. I'm not sure why, but it's true.

What can you do about legginess?

Provide more light. This is the root of the problem and this should be addressed above all else.  You can use the windows, but when you can try to use greenhouses, cold frames, etc. Even if you can only get them out now and then it will help! I put mine out today during some decent weather and though they weren't fixed in an hour, they definitely seemed to perk up.

Pot up and/or bury those wimpy stems. If you had room in your pots like I did, you can add more soil to either fill up your pot (if the leaves extend above the pot) or add enough soil to bury the stem up to the first set of leaves. If you don't have room or would prefer to go ahead and move them to a larger container, this will work as well as long as you bury the stems up to the leaves. The stems will put out roots eventually to help anchor the plant.
 You can also just bury the stems when you transplant. This is fine too.

Before burying the stem

After burying the stems. (The discolored paper is from the inks in it)

Good luck and happy growing!

New Greenhouse and Homemade Seed Trays

We decided to splurge a bit on a greenhouse so I can use it on the occasional warm day now, and then everyday when it warms up a lot. In fact, we had a nice day in the beginning of the week and I got to use it to provide my seedlings with more light. It only took about 10 minutes to put together! We got it at TSC for $30, though it looks like it might be on sale now for only $20 (go figure!) So far I really like it. If you're thinking of starting seeds this year, this is a really affordable and useful option.  Check it out here.

Since I'm using my own pots this year I had to have some trays to put them in. I've been using a recylced cat box to start a few seeds in, but if we're going to grow enough stuff to freeze, can, and/or dry the food, we need to grow more. I was going to buy some disposable cake or lasagna pans, but we haven't made it to the store yet. So, we just built a few trays out of scrap wood. So far we have 3 of them but are making more soon. I also used a tin cake pan. Anyway, enough blabbing. Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure. I present a homemade tray full of cute little brassica sprouts!

I'm pretty proud of these guys. I can't wait until spring! (Are you sick of me saying that yet?)

Thanks for reading!

Starting Seeds-2013

I admit it. I'm sick as can be. You won't believe it,  but I've caught a terrible illness that is striking homesteaders, farmers, and gardeners all over the place this time of year. I've got a bad case of...SPRING FEVER! I decided to start some of my early spring veggies. They can be planted in a few weeks, so I need nice, strong, hardy seed starts soon. (I'm doing my best to rationalize this so feel free to snicker)

I'm starting off with broccoli,  cauliflower,  cabbage, and brussels sprouts.  My newspaper pots (make your very own here) are pretty large, but I'm happy with them because that's one less transplant to worry about. I only filled them halfway because I'm sure my amateur attempts at seed starting will yield some leggy seedlings. Leggy just means they will grow long and skinny because they'll be reaching for light. This is fixed easily enough by burying them up to the first leaves to get rid of those skinny stems. Leaving room in my pots will allow me to do this if necessary.

It's been 6 days since I started my seeds and I have plenty to report! It all started on day 4.

Day 4

One broccoli seed

Day 5

I doubt you can see all of them. I have 5/5 broccoli plants,  4/5 cabbage plants, and 1 brussels sprout plant. I promise they're there! Just squint real hard.

For day 6 I had another brussels sprout and finally saw one cauliflower!

"You're using that for what??"

I love upcycling. You ever seen that person with a tire flowerbed or a bracelet made from magazines.  Yup, that's me! While I'm not admittedly too creative with my ideas (that's why I love pinterest) I love the idea of making trash into treasure. This year I'll be trying to incorporate this with my gardening.  How the heck to do this, you may ask. Well, the beautiful world wide web is abundant with ideas, I will answer.  Let me tell you, I'm excited!

So here are some great ideas!

* Make newspaper or toilet paper roll pots. Check out my how to here

* Turn milk jugs, 2 liters, and juice jugs into cloches. My friend Mary has a very informative blog post on this very thing. It's really great and I highly recommend it. Check it out here Homegrown on the Hill

Photo courtesy of nwfoodandfarm.com

* I'm using an old (clean) litter box and disposable cake pans to put my pots in for starting seeds.

* Use cardboard and newspaper for lasagna bed gardening

* You can also use milk jugs to put bigger plants in

Upcycling is really fun and it's wonderful to do.  You can minimize your impact on the earth and maximize your gardening potential at the same time!

What have you upcycled? Got ideas?  I'd love to hear your own experinces and ideas.


Thanks for reading!