WOO WOO!

Okay, I have to confess that we're in the middle of the start of baseline data collection at work, thus I'm pretty much swimming in paperwork, ordering last minute things and generally helping things run smoothly and attempting to take a deep breath.  Pictures are going to be limited until things settle down a bit.  Here's a brief update anyway:

The good news:
From the meeting on Monday, we found out that we got a space in Skidmore Community Garden, and it's one of the big 64 foot corner plots. 

The tomato seedlings are ready to put in the ground, nownownow.

The Wee Tot told me that the garden is her favorite.  Also, that tree that we just passed on our walk?  That's her favorite tree.  And our dog Sally?  That's her favorite Sally.  And I'm her favorite Mommy.  And Daddy is her favorite Daddy.

The bad news:
 It would appear that I have a penchant for wanting climbing and viney things, and in my mental garden, I'm quickly running out of vertical space.  And we're not allowed to put up trellises in the community garden.  So I'm going through my seeds and seedlings and trying to decide what will have to be planted where, and what gets shelved for this year to be planted next year.

It's threatening to snow this weekend, thus putting off all of my plans for cleaning up the driveway garden and the new community garden.

But hey, you know, that's what you get this time of year in Minnesota.  At least I have broccoli seedlings in the ground, and kale, swiss chard, peas, carrots and lettuce planted in the square foot garden (we'll be covering the broccoli seedlings this weekend...)

Speaking of square foot gardens and gardening in small spaces,  here's some cool info:

1.) The square foot gardening website the guy's book has some good info, but his language bugs the hell out of me in ways that I can't fully explain.  Still.  Focus on the info.  Goooood info.

2.) Veggies by the Yard. Similar concept, different design and really cool plans for gardens closer to the space we'll be planting in (at least along the driveway and in the community garden)

3.) A coworker reminded me of this traditional companion planting (corn, squash and beans). If you have limited space, but have a good sun for corn, why not grow squash and beans too? A little more info with diagrams!

I am alive

Winter threatened to kill all hope of spring, thus sucking my will to live for a while there...on top of last minute scrambles for my grad school application, which is why there hasn't been an update for a while.

HOWEVER!  We're (almost) back on track.  We worked in the yard and practically lived outside all weekend and yes, there are pictures as soon as I can convince the toddler who likes to press buttons to go play with daddy for a while.  I have a better update coming soon, but here's some highlights:


I have a meeting tonight regarding our community garden assignment (WOO WOO).

There's some plans in the works for a large patch of corn in a neighbor's yard.

And I managed to plant kale, lettuce, swiss chard, peas and carrots in the square foot garden on Sunday.

Ry built trellis for morning glories (think I can convince him to also grow scarlet runner beans there?) and is currently working on fencing pieces for his experimental corn patch.

Very cool thing going on

So our seedlings are growing and growing. Some of the Black Krim tomatoes have gotten so big that I put them into compostable pots this morning.  I'm still debating whether I like these pots or if it would be preferable to use the cheap, black plastic ones which could be reused for several years.  We'll see.

Pictures, I swear will be coming eventually.  I just need to get them off the camera.  Hopefully, this weekend.

While you're waiting for pictures ('cause I know you're waiting with bated breath...all three of you.) here's a very cool thing going on in Frogtown involving green beans.
I have a great love of growing beans...I wonder if we could encourage something similar for the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood....

If anyone reading this is in the twin cities, there's a sale on rain barrels and compost bins going on.

I know Ry wants to build our compost bins and rain barrels, but he's been talking about a lot of projects going on for this summer, plus camping. Plus, me going into grad school (hopefully). Plus gardening. Plus toddlers. Plus dogs.

It might be worth our time to just buy them.

Just a quick update

So, I'll try to update every week or so, although, until this snow melts, it'll be sporadic.

Seedlings continue to do well.  It looks like I'm still having trouble with spinach, only 1 in 4 sprouted at all.  But from what I understand, spinach is kinda tricky.  No worries, that was just a test row anyway.

I haven't mentioned something, but now it seems safe to:
Around the middle of February, I signed up for the community garden that's two blocks from my house.  I haven't mentioned it before because I wasn't sure it was going to happen since I know that community garden plots can be in high demand.  I'm still not entirely sure where we are in that process, but they have deposited my $25 check, so I'm assuming that I've got either a 40' or 64' plot.  I suspect I won't know until we go to the mandatory meeting in April.

I'm brilliant

I was just having a discussion on FB about being careful about growing seedlings in windows and how it can make them too leggy. Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...I had another house, another garden and another life.  And we had a brilliant seedling set up. I do sometimes mourn the loss of that set up (although I don't mourn the loss of the life that I led).    I learned early on that if you place the light source too far away from the seedlings, you end up with leggy plants.

So, remember this picture from the other day? I'm...okay with this set up.  I'm not especially as happy about it as I'd like to be.  When starting seedlings indoors, I've always been told that you need your light source as close to the seedlings as possible without scorching them.  Especially if you're using a fairly weak light source like the light we've got.  I tried moving the light closer to the plants yesterday and it's just awkward and weird and I don't like it.

It just occurred to me that the seedlings are sitting on an adjustable shelf.  Instead of moving the light closer to the plants, I could just move the plants closer to the light.

Sheesh.  It only took me 4 days to figure that out....

Woohoo!

Guess what came in the mail today???

My seeds!!

She points out the tomatoes and says "They're yucky!" Sooo...something to work on.

I'm oddly excited about that spinach

The wee tot is underwhelmed